Life Course Outcomes in the Transition to Adulthood of Individuals Growing Up with a Sibling with a Disability.

Lara Bister, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy
Nicoletta Balbo, Bocconi University
Elena Neri, Bocconi University
Hanna Remes, University of Helsinki
Pekka Martikainen, University of Helsinki

Research suggests that growing up with a sibling with a disability may substantially affect individuals’ social, demographic, and economic trajectories, often leading to life course disadvantages. However, empirical evidence is scarce and based on small convenience samples. Our study aims to explore the timing of key life course events in the transition to adulthood (i.e., leaving the parental home, first cohabitation with a partner, finishing education/entering the labour market, having the first child) in individuals who grew up with sibling disability. We utilise individual-level data from the Finnish population registers, matching 149,567 individuals with younger siblings with and without a childhood disability on sociodemographic characteristics and estimating the occurrence of four key life course events using survival and event history analysis. First results show earlier trajectories in leaving the parental home and childbearing for individuals who grew up with sibling disability. In the following steps, we aim to disentangle mechanisms and identify risk and protective factors in diverging life course transitions to adulthood. With our study, we contribute policy-relevant insights into the life course trajectories of an understudied population and advance the understanding of child disability in the family life course and across family interlinkages.

Keywords: Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Longitudinal studies , Families, Unions and Households

See extended abstract.