Growing Up with Special Siblings

What are the effects on teenagers that grew up with older siblings with disabilities? The concepts included in this proposed research are, effects, teenagers, grew up with, and disabilities. According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, an effect is something that is produced by and agent or cause (Merriam-Webster, 1961). For this proposed research an effect will be any physical or mental differences, which is directly or indirectly caused through growing up with a disabled older sibling, between teenagers who fit this criterion and teenagers who do not. Teenagers, for this proposed research, will be defined as anyone from the age of 13 to the age of 18. Grew up with, will mean the disabled older sibling was living in the same home as the studied individual at their time of birth, continued to live in the same home with the studied individual for at least twelve years, and had frequent interactions with the studied individual throughout the twelve years. For this proposed research, disabled siblings will include anyone has the inability to be independent due to a birth defect, and will never be able to gain the skills necessary to become independent in the future.

In Disabilities Vol. 2 a theory is presented on the effects experienced by the siblings of autistic children. This theory states that parents of children with autism typically give more time and energy to their autistic child than their other children. It also theorizes that although no formal expectations of the non-autistic child are established, they feel a responsibility to take over the role of care giver for the autistic sibling once the current care givers, in this case the parents, are gone. Another theory presented in this publication is...

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...oped mentally their comprehension level of what will be asked of them, may be low enough to effect answers to questions or behavior in un-desired ways. Lastly a huge limitation is other variables, data and results could possibly be skewed by other variables that effect teens, and happen to be present in many of the families studied.

Works Cited

Hogan, D. (2012). Family Consequences of Children's Disabilities. New York: Russell Sage foundation.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. (2013). Three Major Perspectives in Sociology. Retrieved from Cliff Notes: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/sociology/the-sociological-perspective/three-major-perspectives-in-sociology

Marshall, C. A., Kendall, E., Banks, M. E., & Gover, R. S. (2009). Disabilities Vol. 2. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Merriam-Webster. (1961). Webster's Third New International Dictionary.