The impacts of typically developing siblings on the developmental outcomes of children with disability: A scoping review

Abstract

Background: Siblings represent an important influence on children's development. It is possible that sibling influence on developmental outcomes differs in sibling pairs when one of the children has a disability. Previous research has tended to focus on outcomes for typically developing siblings when they have a brother/sister with a disability.

Aims: The purpose of this scoping review was to explore empirical studies reporting on the impact of siblings on the developmental outcomes of children with disability to better understand the areas that are influenced by siblings and the factors that contribute to this influence.

Method: To identify relevant studies, the electronic databases of EBSCO, ERIC, Informit, Ovid, ProQuest and Scopus were searched. These searches were supplemented by direction from the authors on relevant literature and citation searches of papers identified for inclusion. Descriptive details were extracted, followed by details related to research design and findings of the studies.

Outcomes and results: Twenty-two papers were determined to meet inclusion criteria. Investigations of sibling influence have concentrated on children with ASD; other groups are not well represented. There is some evidence that having older siblings may be protective for children with ASD; however, this was not an invariable finding. There is too little consistency across studies to determine whether and how siblings influence development of children with disability.

Conclusions and implications: Further work is required to understand the potentially crucial influence that siblings may have on developmental outcomes of children with disability.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); Development; Disability; Scoping review; Siblings.