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The Sibling Project

The Sibling Project focuses on children, adolescents and emerging adults who have a sibling with a disability, investigating their mental health, relationships and quality of life.

International Day of Families 💐

May 15th is International Day of Families – a day where we recognise the importance of family in our lives and communities. Here at The Sibling Project, we are committed to supporting the wellbeing of families through our research which focuses on the unique bond between siblings. We believe that by supporting the wellbeing of siblings, developing initiatives that strengthen the sibling bond and help parents, and responding to the unmet needs of all family members, families can thrive.

Our team uses creative and innovative methods to ensure that all perspectives within the family can be captured and contribute to our research, even the voices of the littlest family members which are often missing. We are very proud of our Drawing Study which invited children as young as four years of age to draw their relationship with their sibling/s. Drawings were then analysed by our research team to reveal important characteristics of the sibling bond. Please take some time to have a look at the wonderful drawings created by our research participants.

Happy International Day of Families!

Siblings Clip Art

Exploring the experiences, health, wellbeing, relationships, and needs of children who have a brother or sister with a developmental disability.

In Australia, more than ten thousand children are born each year with a developmental disability or neurodevelopmental condition, such as autism, intellectual disability and cerebral palsy. The sibling journey can be immensely rewarding, with research highlighting the resilience and personal growth of siblings, yet siblings also face challenges which can sometimes be overlooked. The aim of the Sibling Project is to explore the experiences, health, wellbeing, relationships, and needs of siblings at the individual, family and wider community levels.

We value the help and guidance of siblings and parents in our research. On this website, we invite siblings and parents to join our team as co-researchers, participate in research projects, keep informed of our findings and events, and contact us with suggestions.

Sign up to our mailing list!

Be notified about future projects and opportunities by clicking here.

Get involved in a real-life research project!

Are you a sibling of someone with a developmental disability aged 13-25 years?

Read more about Sibling Support and Teen Talk Studies

Are you a sibling of someone with a developmental disability or neurodevelopmental condition and have lived or currently live in a rural or remote area?

Read more about the Rural Siblings Study

Are you a sibling of someone with Down syndrome and aged between 5 and 29 years?

Read more about the Siblings Snapshot Study


Do you have an idea for sibling research?
Email us siblings@thekids.org.au to let us know!

Stories Featuring Us

Down syndrome or Rett
syndrome in the family

“The research WORKS” podcast episode

Drawing conclusions
about sibling relationships

A Together Magazine article

Learn more about us

Discover our publications

See our latest papers

Click here

In collaboration with

Siblings Australia

Supporting life’s relationships is at the core

Thank you for supporting us!

National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Grant 1184770
NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship Grant 1117105
The University of Western Australia Student Scholarship RTP/UPA
Embrace Seeding Grant ESG
Stan Perron Charitable Foundation SPCF