The moderating role of gender in siblings of adults with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

Siblings play an important role in psychological and relational development in the lifecycle, especially if the family includes brothers or sisters with intellectual disability. The main objective of this study was to examine whether the relationships experienced by siblings of people with intellectual disability (ID-sibs) and siblings of people with typical development (TD-sibs) influence their ways of coping with stress and anxiety level, with particular emphasis on gender differences. The participants were 187 adults, of whom 104 (55.6%) were females aged 18 to 76 years (M = 29.42; SD = 11.93). Of our sample, 51.9% (N = 97) had a sibling with an intellectual disability and 48.1% (N = 90) had a sibling with typical development. The participants completed a self-report questionnaire that assessed demographics, sibling-relationship quality, anxiety, and coping orientations to problems experienced. The results show that women report a higher quality of relationship with ID-sibs compared to men and to women who have TD-sibs. The results further indicate that women with ID-sibs had higher levels of anxiety and used Transcendent-Oriented coping strategies more frequently. Lastly, gender moderated the relation between relationship quality and coping strategies in diverse ways in the two groups considered. The implications of the overall results are that sibling-focused interventions should focus on improving negative sibling relationships in order to reduce the impact of difficulties on TD siblings of both genders and that the content and delivery framework of interventions should be shaped accordingly.

Emotional–Behavioral Disorders in Healthy Siblings of Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

“…This differential data can be linked to the greater ability to adapt and to positively cope with traumatic events in life, the so-called resilience, that is present more in women than in men. Moreover, women seem to have a higher quality of relationship with disabled sibs compared to men [ 30 ].…”

The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Coping Strategies in a Sample of Siblings of People With and Without Intellectual Disability: The Mediating Role of Sibling Relationship Quality

“…By taking on this role, the development of the child can be negatively affected, and they can experience a reduction in psychological wellbeing and increased distress in adulthood and difficulties in social interactions [14]. In particular, females seem to be more prone to developing distress [5,15]. Although not all studies agree [16], some evidence suggests that S-IDs tend to maintain less frequent and lower quality contact than S-TDs [17].…”

“…In this way, it is possible that different distressing factors intervene to decrease the quality of the relationship between S-TDs and S-IDs compared to that of pairs of siblings with typical development. Some research has identified a correlation between the quality of the relationship between siblings with typical development and those with intellectual disability and the use of coping strategies [5,10,14,18]. "Coping strategies" refer to a person's active or passive strategies and behaviors for dealing with stressful events [19].…”

“…In contrast, emotionfocused strategies are characterized by avoidance or heightening of the emotional aspects of the situation and therefore considered more dysfunctional [19]. The literature tends to demonstrate an association between a better quality relationship with S-IDs and the use of more appropriate and adaptive coping strategies [5,10,14,18]. Children [18] and adults [10] reported more frequent use of problem-focused coping strategies and less of emotion-focused coping strategies when reporting a closer sibling relationship, and with siblings with typical and atypical development.…”

Sibling Relationships, Personality Traits, Emotional, and Behavioral Difficulties in Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…To evaluate this, researchers have o en considered the presence of problem behaviors that are externalizing (e.g., hyperactivity and aggressiveness) and internalizing (e.g., somatization, anxiety, and depression). Studies have yielded conflicting results on the issue of sibling adjustment, with a number of them reporting higher externalizing and internalizing problems in children that have a sister or brother with ASD [7,28,29], while others did not find any significant differences between them and the siblings of children with other disabilities or typical development [30,6]. At this point, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions on the effect of having a brother or sister with ASD [31].…”