New study shows about one-third of young people in 43 low- and middle-
income countries have lost a sibling before age 25
In comparison, about eight percent of US youth have experienced at least
one sibling death

Date:
October 14, 2020
Source:
PLOS
Summary:
On average, about a third of women between 15 and 34 years old from
43 low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have lost at least one
sibling before the age of 25, according to a new study.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
On average, about a third of women between 15 and 34 years old from 43
low-and- middle-income countries (LMIC) have lost at least one sibling
before the age of 25, according to a study published October 7, 2020
in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Emily Smith-Greenaway from the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, U.S., and co- author Abigail Weitzman.


========================================================================== Though research examining the impact of sibling death on children and
families is growing, much of this new literature focuses only on data
from high-income countries in North America and Europe. In this study, Smith-Greenaway and Weitzman seek to address this gap by studying the experiences of women from 43 different LMIC in sub-Saharan Africa, South/Southeast Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The authors used data from nationally representative samples of 348,314
15- to 34-year-old women, born between 1985 and 2003, to document
experiences of sibling death (before turning 25). The dataset comes from
the Demographic and Health Survey Program, which has administered regular household-based surveys across more than 90 LMIC for the past 30 years.

Across all 43 studied countries, roughly one third of the young women
in the representative dataset had at least one deceased sibling. (In comparison, approximately eight percent of US youth have experienced a sibling's death before age 25.) However, the dataset showed significant regional variation: countries affected by conflict and war tended to
show even higher numbers of sibling deaths (over half of respondents in
Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Niger, Burundi,
and Rwanda had experienced at least one sibling death). Sibling loss was relatively less common, at slightly more than ten percent of respondents,
for respondents in South Africa, Bolivia, and Columbia. Most of these
reported sibling deaths occurred during the respondent's lifetimes,
rather than prior to the respondent's birth.

Across the studied countries in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean,
over one-third of bereaved respondents experienced the loss of two or
more siblings.

Multiple sibling losses were reported at higher rates from respondents
in Western, Central, and Eastern African countries, contexts with high fertility and high rates of under-five mortality. However, bereaved
respondents in the majority of studied countries -- including those who experienced numerous sibling deaths -- still had a comparable number
of remaining living siblings relative to peers whose siblings were all
still alive.

The survey data represents only those sibling deaths that the respondents
were aware of and remembered, so may undercount deaths. However,
these results are an important step to understanding the implications
of sibling mortality for young people across the world, especially in understudied regions.

The authors add: "Siblings influence each other's development in
powerful ways, yet we know little about how often these intimate bonds
are broken by premature death -- especially in the global south. We find
that, in many low- and middle- income countries, more than one-third of
young people experience a sibling death during their formative years, confirming that sibling loss is a very common early life adversity in
many global contexts that must be acknowledged and interrogated."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Emily Smith-Greenaway, Abigail Weitzman. Sibling mortality burden
in low-
income countries: A descriptive analysis of sibling death in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. PLOS ONE, 2020; 15
(10): e0236498 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236498 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201014141127.htm

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