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Siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders: social support and family quality of life

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Abstract

Purpose

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often has a significant impact on all family members, including parents and siblings of the person who suffers the disorder. This case–control study explores potential factors that help explain the impact of having an older sibling with ASD on several developmental domains, and to test whether these factors could explain their satisfaction on family quality of life (FQoL).

Methods

A total of 78 unaffected siblings of children with ASD (Sibs-ASD) and siblings of children with typical development (Sibs-TD) from 6 to 12 years old were evaluated.

Results

Our analyses show significant differences between groups in motor skills, severity of autistic traits, satisfaction on FQoL, and social support (ps < .05). Moreover, social support acts as positive factor protecting from the negative effect of having a sibling with ASD on satisfaction of FQoL (R2 = .32).

Conclusions

Our findings highlight the variability in the developmental abilities of the unaffected school-age children with familiar risk factors and emphasize the need for supervising development of all Sibs-ASD over different time points. Social support may be a critical aspect to consider in interventions for improving the satisfaction on FQoL.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the families who participated in this study for their continued support of our research. This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) under Grant [PSI2014-51842-R]; and the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Spain) under Grant [FPU14/00723]. The authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, CP: 18071, Granada, Spain

    Dunia Garrido, Gloria Carballo & Rocio Garcia-Retamero

  2. Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

    Rocio Garcia-Retamero

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  1. Dunia Garrido
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  2. Gloria Carballo
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  3. Rocio Garcia-Retamero
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Correspondence to Dunia Garrido.

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Garrido, D., Carballo, G. & Garcia-Retamero, R. Siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders: social support and family quality of life. Qual Life Res 29, 1193–1202 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-020-02429-1

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