Depressive symptoms of autism spectrum disorder children's siblings in Greece: Associations with parental anxiety and social support.
Parent anxiety and low support fuel depression in the neurotypical sibling—so screen and support the whole Greek family, and likely any family.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Koukouriki et al. (2021) asked Greek school-age siblings of autistic children to fill out a short mood survey. Parents also answered questions about their own anxiety and the support they get from friends, school, and services.
The team then used statistics to see if parent anxiety or low support predicted higher depression scores in the neurotypical brothers and sisters.
What they found
Siblings scored above the normal range for depressive symptoms. Higher parent anxiety and lower family support each added to the child’s depression score, even when the other factor was already counted.
In plain words, when parents feel anxious and the family has little outside help, the non-autistic sibling is more likely to feel down.
How this fits with other research
Lovell et al. (2016) and Gold (1993) saw the same elevated depression in siblings years earlier, so the Greek data confirm a pattern that spans countries and decades.
Bellia et al. (2024) push the timeline backward, showing that a family history of anxiety or depression forecasts poorer social-cognitive growth in toddler siblings. Evangelia’s paper adds the real-time proof that current parent anxiety matters right now for school-age mood.
Shivers (2019) sounds contradictory at first: adolescent siblings of autistic kids actually report higher perspective-taking and warm feelings toward their brother or sister. The studies don’t clash—they simply map different outcomes. One paper tracks empathy growth; the other tracks mood risk. Both can be true in the same family.
Why it matters
If you serve autistic clients, widen the lens. A quick parent-anxiety screener and a sibling mood check during intake can flag families who need extra support. Link them to parent groups, respite funds, or brief counseling before depression deepens. Treat the family system, not just the identified client.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Typically developing siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders are often found to exhibit elevated levels of stress and depressive symptoms compared to siblings of typically developing children or siblings of children with other disabilities. Besides the behavioral problems of the child with autism and certain demographic characteristics that have been recognized as factors associated with typically developing siblings' psychological distress, the role of parental mental health and the social support from the family has not been studied sufficiently. The goal of this study is to assess depressive symptoms in 85 Greek school-aged typically developing siblings of children with autism and to investigate for any associations between siblings' depressive symptoms on one hand and demographics, parental mental health, and perceived social support on the other hand. It was found that typically developing siblings had higher levels of depressive symptoms compared to children from a general population sample. In addition, parental anxiety and social support from the family as perceived by the parents themselves were identified as independently associated with typically developing siblings' depressive symptoms. Of note, perceived social support failed to attenuate the association between parental anxiety and siblings' depressive symptoms. These results highlight the importance of assessing both parental and typically developing siblings' psychological state to implement interventions addressed to the needs of all family members.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2021 · doi:10.1177/1362361320966847