Breslau N
J Abnorm Child Psychol. 1982 Mar;10(1):85-96. doi: 10.1007/BF00915953.
Whereas older siblings of children with congenital disability have lived their earliest years in a "normal" family environment, younger siblings, especially those in a close age-spacing relationship, were born into families marked by the presence of a disabled child. In this paper, 327 siblings of disabled children are compared to 248 siblings from a random sample of families to examine whether the early family environment of siblings of disabled children, as indexed by relative birth order and age-spacing, has a unique influence on psychological functioning. The findings partially confirmed the expected relationships: Younger male siblings, specifically those in close age-spacing relationship to the disabled child, scored higher on psychological impairment than older male siblings. Among female siblings, a similar influence was not in evidence: Younger female siblings were psychologically better off than older female siblings and their age-spacing was not significantly related to psychological functioning. However, the results suggest that siblings' later response to early life experience may be sex-contingent, with males demonstrating interpersonal aggression and females experiencing depressive-anxious feelings.
先天性残疾儿童的哥哥姐姐在“正常”家庭环境中度过了他们的早年时光，而弟弟妹妹，尤其是那些年龄间隔较小的，出生在有残疾儿童的家庭。本文将327名残疾儿童的兄弟姐妹与随机抽取的248名家庭中的兄弟姐妹进行比较，以研究残疾儿童兄弟姐妹的早期家庭环境（以相对出生顺序和年龄间隔为指标）是否对心理功能有独特影响。研究结果部分证实了预期关系：年龄较小的男性兄弟姐妹，特别是那些与残疾儿童年龄间隔较小的，在心理障碍方面的得分高于年龄较大的男性兄弟姐妹。在女性兄弟姐妹中，没有明显的类似影响：年龄较小的女性兄弟姐妹心理状况比年龄较大的女性兄弟姐妹更好，而且她们的年龄间隔与心理功能没有显著关系。然而，结果表明，兄弟姐妹对早期生活经历的后期反应可能因性别而异，男性表现出人际攻击性，而女性则经历抑郁焦虑情绪。
