Premium
Sibling Ill Health and Children's Educational Outcomes
Author(s) -
Bortes Cristian,
Strandh Mattias,
Nilsson Karina
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/josh.12887
Subject(s) - sibling , disadvantaged , medicine , odds ratio , confidence interval , logistic regression , confounding , microdata (statistics) , odds , demography , population , academic achievement , pediatrics , psychology , developmental psychology , environmental health , pathology , sociology , political science , law , census
BACKGROUND The presence of health problems in a child is known to be negatively associated with later academic achievement, but less is known about the educational outcomes for siblings of children in poor health. The study investigated how having a sibling with health problems affects a healthy sibling's academic achievement. METHODS We utilized medical and social microdata from Swedish administrative population registers. Our sample consisted of N = 115,106 individuals (51.3% boys) born in 1990 in Sweden. We compared children with ill siblings to children whose siblings did not have poor health. Siblings' hospital admissions and the academic achievements of the healthy sibling during their final year of compulsory education (at the age of 15‐16) were analyzed using linear and logistic regression in relation to individual health‐ and family‐related confounders. RESULTS Sibling hospitalization was significantly associated with lower overall grade points (β = −10.73, p < .001) and an increased odds ratio (OR) of ineligibility for upper secondary education (OR = 1.42, 95% confidence interval = 1.31‐1.52, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS School and health personnel should also consider the needs of healthy siblings during their work with children in poor health, because they too can be disadvantaged.