Parental reflective functioning: A study of siblings in families with autistic versus typically developing children.
Parents of autistic kids show extra care toward that child yet also talk in confused ways about both kids, so balance your parent training across siblings.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Yael’s team watched 120 families. Half had one autistic child and one typical sibling. The other half had two typical kids.
Parents answered a 20-minute interview. Coders scored how well parents saw each child as a person with feelings and thoughts.
What they found
Parents talked about the autistic child with more depth and care than about the typical brother or sister.
At the same time, these parents used more odd, mixed-up phrases about both kids. Families with no autism showed almost none of this talk.
How this fits with other research
Lovell et al. (2016) found the typical siblings feel more sadness. Yael now shows one reason: parents think harder about the autistic child, so the sibling may feel left out.
Toth et al. (2007) showed the baby siblings already lag in language. Yael adds that parents’ mixed-up talk could be one early input to that lag.
Wetterneck et al. (2006) said autism parents read faces poorly. Yael agrees but moves the lens inward: the same parents also struggle to read minds, even of the child who has no diagnosis.
Why it matters
When you coach an autism family, split your time. Give parents tools to keep seeing the typical child as a full person with needs. Add a quick sibling mood check at every visit. Five minutes can cut later depression and boost language.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF) refers to parents' ability to understand and respond to their child's mental states. Prior research found that parents show heightened PRF toward their autistic children compared to their typically developing (TD) siblings. However, little is known about how such patterns vary across families with and without an autistic child. This study aimed to replicate previous findings and examine how families with and without autistic children differ in PRF. Thirty parents with autistic and TD child, and 30 parents with only TD children completed for each of their children the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ) and the Five-Minute Speech Sample (FMSS-RF) resulting in 120 individual PRF assessments. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVAs and χ² tests to compare PRF across siblings and family types. Results showed significantly higher PRF for autistic children compared to their TD siblings. This pattern emerged across both positive (e.g., interest and curiosity) and negative (e.g., pre-mentalizing modes, which capture distorted or absent mentalization) dimensions, suggesting a complex and potentially ambivalent parental stance. When comparing between families, those including an autistic child showed similarly elevated levels of pre-mentalizing towards both children, whereas families of only TD children exhibited greater differentiation in pre-mentalizing across siblings - indicating a distinct within-family pattern in autism contexts. These findings underscore the unique demands on parents raising autistic children and highlight a potential disparity in PRF that may impact TD siblings. The study calls for further research and family support strategies.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2026 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2025.105194