Children who take care of younger siblings develop advanced empathy, and Brazil is creating fewer and fewer opportunities for this.

Written by Bruno Teles

Published on 16/04/2026 at 02:13

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Study with 452 pairs of siblings shows that taking care of a baby trains the Theory of Mind and self-control from an early age. In Brazil, the fertility rate has fallen to 1.6 children per woman and sibling cohabitation is disappearing.

A four-year-old child interpreting the cries of their baby brother is unknowingly practicing what neuroscientists call the Theory of Mind: the ability to understand that another person feels, thinks, and desires things different from their own. A study published in Child Development followed 452 pairs of siblings aged 18 months to 4 years over 18 months and showed that this type of interaction produces gains in empathy that go beyond what interaction with adults offers.

The research was conducted by Marc Jambon from the University of Toronto, with teams from the University of Calgary, Université Laval, and Tel Aviv University.

What did the study find that surprised the researchers themselves?

The central finding was not that older siblings influence younger ones. That was already expected. What surprised was that younger siblings also develop the empathy of older ones. The influence is mutual and remained even after the researchers isolated the effect of parenting practices and the family’s socioeconomic level.

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Why does this matter specifically for Brazil?

Because Brazil is losing this tool at a record speed.

The Brazilian fertility rate fell to 1.6 children per woman in the 2022 Census, the lowest in history. In 1960, it was 6.28. The average family size shrank from 3.62 people in 2008 to 3.07 in 2018. Births declined for the sixth consecutive year in 2024, falling to 2.4 million. The projection for 2030 is 1.5 children per woman.

In practice, an increasing proportion of Brazilian children are growing up without siblings. And without siblings, there is no opportunity to practice reading a baby’s non-verbal cues, delaying wants in favor of someone smaller, or experiencing the direct impact of care on another human being within the home.

This does not condemn only children to emotional deficits. Schools, daycare centers, and interactions with cousins can provide stimuli. But the daily intensity and the emotional bond of the sibling relationship are hard to replicate. It is everyday, involuntary, and emotionally charged. Exactly what makes it effective as emotional training.

What does science already know about siblings and emotional development?

Jambon’s study is not isolated. A review published in PubMed Central on sibling relationships in childhood and adolescence confirms that frequent cooperative interactions accelerate the development of Theory of Mind, because they create what experts call “mentalizing conversations,” moments when the child tries to understand what the other is thinking.

Warm relationships between siblings have been associated with higher levels of empathy from the age of 11 and a measurable reduction in egocentric behavior.

Empathy cannot be taught through theory. It is taught by caring for someone. And the most natural opportunity for this, which has existed throughout human history, is diminishing along with the size of Brazilian families. What do you think about this?

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Children who take care of younger siblings develop advanced empathy, and Brazil is creating fewer and fewer opportunities for this.

Study with 452 pairs of siblings shows that taking care of a baby trains the Theory of Mind and self-control from an early age. In Brazil, the fertility rate has fallen to 1.6 children per woman and sibling cohabitation is disappearing.

What did the study find that surprised the researchers themselves?

Why does this matter specifically for Brazil?

What does science already know about siblings and emotional development?

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Children who take care of younger siblings develop advanced empathy, and Brazil is creating fewer and fewer opportunities for this.

Study with 452 pairs of siblings shows that taking care of a baby trains the Theory of Mind and self-control from an early age. In Brazil, the fertility rate has fallen to 1.6 children per woman and sibling cohabitation is disappearing.

What did the study find that surprised the researchers themselves?

Why does this matter specifically for Brazil?

What does science already know about siblings and emotional development?

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While the U.S. still faces limitations in deep space, China is developing unprecedented technology with strategic satellites that maintain communication with the far side of the Moon and aims for dominance by 2030.

In Botswana, a salt flat of up to 16,000 km² that was once an African megalake spends months as an absolute white desert, but during the rainy season it transforms into a shallow sea that reappears from nowhere and can be seen from space in the middle of southern Africa.

The Blood Falls of Antarctica hide a living ecosystem trapped under the ice for over 2 million years, where microbes survive without light, without oxygen, and without ever having seen the Sun.

Bavarian archaeologists unearthed a medieval skeleton that had an articulated iron hand in place of its left arm, and the discovery reveals that doctors were already creating sophisticated prosthetics over 500 years ago.

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