title: Ripple effects of developmental disabilities and mental illness on nondisabled adult siblings.
abstract: Developmental disabilities and severe mental illness are costly to the affected individual and frequently to their family as well. Little studied are their nondisabled siblings. Here we examine major life course outcomes (education, employment, and marriage) of these siblings in adulthood using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Our sample comprises 113 individuals with developmental disabilities and 337 of their nondisabled siblings; 97 individuals with mental illness and 235 of their nondisabled siblings; and 17,126 unaffected comparison group members. We find that siblings of individuals with mental illness have less education and less employment than the unaffected comparison group, whereas those who have a sibling with developmental disabilities had normative patterns of education and employment, but less marriage and more divorce. Robustness tests incorporating genetic data do not change the conclusions based on the nongenetic analyses.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Research on Poverty, La Follette School of Public Affairs, Department of Economics, and Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Electronic address: bwolfe@wisc.edu.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wolfe
authors.affiliation: Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Highland Ave, Madison, WI 53705-2280, USA.
authors.forename: Jieun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work and Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1350 University Ave, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors.forename: Jan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Greenberg
authors.affiliation: Waisman Center and School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Highland Ave, Madison, WI 53705-2280, USA.
authors.forename: Marsha R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Mailick
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D035781:Siblings / Q000523:psychology*; D014922:Wisconsin
keywords: Developmental disabilities; Education; Life course; Severe mental illness; Siblings; U.S.A.