ReviewFrontiers in psychology2026
Psychosocial adaptation of siblings of autistic individuals: current evidence, controversies, and future directions.
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This mini review synthesizes current evidence on the psychosocial adaptation of non-autistic siblings of autistic children, adolescents, and adults. We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science (January 2021-March 2026) and synthesized the retrieved literature narratively along three organizing axes: ecological level, developmental stage, and the risk-resilience continuum. Existing research shows a heterogeneous profile in which vulnerability and resilience coexist: siblings may experience loneliness, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and role strain, but may also report empathy, maturity, and a strong sense of responsibility, alongside acceptance and benefit-finding. Adaptive outcomes are associated with multiple interacting factors, including the severity of co-occurring behavioral and emotional difficulties in the autistic child, sibling age and sex, parental mental health, family communication, social support, school context, and the interacting influences of gender, religiosity, and culture. Emerging interventions, particularly psychoeducational support groups, play-based sibling training, and family-oriented programs, have established feasibility, acceptability, and social validity, and a single randomized trial supports improved sibling relationship quality; established effectiveness has not yet been demonstrated. Most primary studies are cross-sectional, qualitative, or small-scale, and a substantial proportion draws on mixed neurodevelopmental, intellectual-disability, or chronic-condition samples, so autism-specific inference remains limited. Current controversies concern how to balance risk-based and strength-based framings without pathologizing ordinary ambivalence or romanticizing caregiving-related growth, how far elevated sibling risk reflects shared familial liability rather than psychosocial burden, and how cultural context reshapes sibling roles and the meaning of adaptation. Future research should prioritize longitudinal designs, culturally responsive interventions, and greater attention to preschool-aged and adult siblings to better inform family-centered pediatric psychological care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.