Autism and Sibling Experience: A Review on Sibling Relationship and Psychological Adjustment

Abstract

Sibling relationship is defined as the closest, intense and longest relationship that individuals could experience a combination of different feelings and situations such as affinity, protection and learning social experiences as well as jealousy, competition and hostility. It can be expressed that this experience and the appearance of feelings differ depending on the developmental stages. The existence of a member in the family, affected by a lifespan disability, such as autism, has an impact in the life of siblings together with the parents. For the healthy developing member having a sibling with autism is expected to have different positive or negative effects both in terms of the quality of sibling relationship and psychological properties. The purpose of this review article is to examine the relationships between healthy siblings and autistic siblings and to examine the studies on various psychological characteristics of the healthy siblings. Having an autistic sibling has different consequences for the healthy child, both in sibling relationships and psychological adjustment.