Child Disability and Effects on Sibling Mental Health

Janet Currie, N. Meltem Daysal (), Gørtz, Mette () and Jonas Hirani
Additional contact information
Janet Currie: Yale University
N. Meltem Daysal: University of Copenhagen
Gørtz, Mette: University of Copenhagen
Jonas Hirani: VIVE

No 18783, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: We ask how a younger sibling’s physical disability affects sibling mental health using Danish register data on families with three or more children. Difference-in-difference models compare first- and second-born children when the third-born does or does not have a disability. Use of mental health services increases 13% among second-born children, with a 23% increase in psychiatric visits and an 18% increase in use of psychiatric medications. Effects are concentrated in households where the mother has less than high school and persist after conditioning on child test scores. Parental responses suggest that caregiving demands, stress, and strained resources are potential mechanisms.

Keywords: disability; mental health; siblings; children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp18783.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18783

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Fallak ().