The attitudes of typically developing adolescents towards their sibling with autism spectrum disorder

South African Journal of Communication Disorders

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The attitudes of typically developing adolescents towards their sibling with autism spectrum disorder
 
Creator van der Merwe, Christine Bornman, Juan Donohue, Dana Harty, Michal
 
Subject Autism; Speech-language therapy/pathology Adolescence; Attitude; Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scale; Sibling; South Africa
Description Background: Understanding how the cognitive, emotional and behavioural components of sibling attitudes interact with one another at various stages of a sibling’s lifespan will allow clinicians to provide better support to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families. However, no research exists which focusses on describing the attitudes of adolescent siblings of children with ASD within the South African context towards their sibling with an ASD. The primary aim of this study was to investigate how typically developing adolescents recall their past attitudes and describe their present attitudes towards their sibling with an ASD.Methods: Thirty typically developing adolescents who have siblings with ASD were selected to complete the survey instrument, the Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scale, using a cross-sectional design.Results: Results indicate that the measure has internal consistency within this sample. Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests were used to test for significant differences between the mean values for the two self-reported time periods. Friedman analysis of variances (ANOVAs) was used to test for significant differences in the three components of attitudes, namely affect, behaviour and cognition. Results indicate that participants held more positive attitudes towards their siblings with ASD as adolescents compared with when they were younger and that adolescents rated their current emotions towards and beliefs about their sibling with ASD to be more positive than their current interaction experiences.Conclusion: As siblings’ attitudes appear to change over time, clinicians should use a lifespan approach to sibling attitudes when designing and implementing supports for siblings of children with ASD.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor N/A
Date 2017-04-26
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajcd.v64i1.184
 
Source South African Journal of Communication Disorders; Vol 64, No 1 (2017); 7 pages 2225-4765 0379-8046
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/184/716 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/184/715 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/184/717 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/184/714
 
Coverage South Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 Christine van der Merwe, Juan Bornman, Dana Donohue, Michal Harty https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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