Is early childhood development impeded by the birth timing of the younger sibling?

Abstract

BackgroundThis study investigated whether the timing of birth of the younger siblings was associated with the risk of the older siblings' developmental vulnerability in early childhood.MethodsLinkage of population-level birth registration, hospital, and perinatal datasets to Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) records (2009-2015), enabled follow-up of a cohort of 32,324 Western Australia born singletons. Children with scores ResultsRelative to post-birth IPIs of 18-23 months, post-birth IPIs of ConclusionsDevelopmental vulnerability was associated with having a closely spaced younger sibling (<12 months post-birth IPIs). Optimising birth spacing should be further investigated as a potential means for improving child development outcomes.