Sibling Relationships: Growing Up with A Sibling Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and its Influence on Family Cohesion, Sibling Attachment and Current Life Satisfaction

Abstract

 The study discussed the Sibling Relationship: Growing up with a sibling diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and its Influence on Family Cohesion, Siblings Attachment and Current Life Satisfaction. A total of fifteen respondents were purposively selected from Angono Elementary School SPED, Sta. Ana Elementary School SPED, and Project TEACH Mandaluyong City.

 The instrument used was researcher- made and it was divided into three parts. The first part belongs to the information of the respondents (Age, Gender, and Number of siblings); the second part was about the level of awareness about autism spectrum disorder, and the third part determined the siblings’ relationship, family cohesion, sibling attachment, current life satisfaction. All data relating to these factors was gathered and analyzed for the purposes of the study.

 The responses gathered through the questionnaires were subjected to statistical treatment by way of mean, percentage, chi-square and spearman rho.

 Results showed that the majority of the respondents were adolescents. Most of the respondents were male. All of the respondents were from small families. The outcome of the study presented that Autism Spectrum Disorder had no influence on family cohesion, sibling attachment and current life satisfaction of the respondents. From the outcomes of the study, the recommendations by the researcher include the following; Family, especially siblings, should be more involved, and close to each other; Parents should understand the differences of their children. Parents are responsible for encouraging family bonds between the individual family members. They should create an activity that all of the members will participate in; the sibling(s) of the person diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder should be aware of their sibling condition. They should show love and care to them.

 Families should guide the person diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and take precautions to ensure they do not feel isolated or different. Parents should be encouraged to establish good relationship building techniques to their children. For those children who have a sibling with Autism Spectrum Disorder, they need to become more understanding. For future researchers, it is recommended to develop the instrument use in this research in order to achieve more comprehensive data about a sibling growing up with autism spectrum disorder, and its influence in family, cohesion, sibling attachment and current life satisfaction. Also, it is recommended to find more respondents to be able to gather more comprehensive data.