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Social Support When a Sibling Has a Disability

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Brothers and Sisters

Abstract

More than one billion people globally are estimated to have a disability of some sort (WHO 2020), and most of these are likely to have a brother or sister. The basic starting point in this chapter, is that disability has a unique influence on the sibling relationship, and can inflect the dynamic between brothers and sisters. This chapter traces how social support for and between siblings with and without disabilities is interwoven with how historically people with disabilities were understood, treated and supported. The chapter summarizes findings on sibling adjustment to a sibling’s disability; the sibling relationship where a brother or sister is disabled; and studies on caregiving and future planning as well as the limitations of the current research literature. The chapter also includes comments on social support for and between siblings during childhood, young and middle adulthood and as siblings age. The chapter shows how, for siblings of people with disabilities, their sibling relationship can be a unique emotional and practical experience over the course of their lifetime, but social support is critically important.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    John Kramer

  2. Centre for Social Impact, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Ariella Meltzer

  3. Siblings Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Kate Strohm

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  1. John Kramer
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  2. Ariella Meltzer
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  3. Kate Strohm
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Correspondence to John Kramer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Ann Buchanan

  2. Helsinki, Finland

    Anna Rotkirch

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Kramer, J., Meltzer, A., Strohm, K. (2021). Social Support When a Sibling Has a Disability. In: Buchanan, A., Rotkirch, A. (eds) Brothers and Sisters. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55985-4_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55985-4_15

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