Using administrative data to examine variables affecting the mental health of siblings of children who have a developmental disability.

Marquis et al. (2020) mined government health records. They looked for mental-health diagnoses in brothers and sisters of kids with developmental disabilities.

The team checked sibling sex, disabled child’s sex, disability type, birth order and family income. They wanted to see which facts best predicted later mental-health problems.

The records showed clear patterns. Sibling sex, the disabled child’s sex, type of disability, who was born first and how much money the family made all shaped risk.

Some brothers and sisters were far more likely to receive anxiety, mood or behavior diagnoses than others.

Dumont et al. (2014) seemed to disagree. They found no mental-health gap once family income was held constant. Sandra’s team kept income in the model and still saw risk, because their huge data set let tiny effects stay visible.

Giallo et al. (2006) and Boettcher et al. (2024) back the same story: parent stress and low income matter more than the disability label itself. Sandra’s work extends these older studies by showing exactly which combinations of child sex, birth order and income tip the scale.

Poppes et al. (2016) already showed adult siblings of people with ASD face higher anxiety and depression. Sandra confirms the risk starts in childhood and adds new factors clinicians can check on intake.

You can now screen for the highest-risk siblings in minutes. Ask about birth order, family income and the disabled child’s diagnosis. When these factors stack up, plan earlier mental-health checks, parent stress reduction and sibling support instead of waiting for problems to surface.