Seeing the siblings: Gender differences in emerging-adult siblings of individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
Tailor sibling support by gender—college-age sisters of autistic individuals report more negative affect despite higher family cohesion.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hamama et al. (2021) sent online surveys to college-age brothers and sisters of people with autism.
They asked about mood, family closeness, and coping resources.
The team then compared answers from sisters versus brothers.
What they found
Sisters reported more negative feelings than brothers.
Yet sisters also said their families were closer and more flexible.
Gender shaped how resources like support linked to mood.
How this fits with other research
Alon (2025) extends these results. That study shows a strong sense of coherence predicts better mood in adult siblings of people with autism or Down syndrome.
Capio et al. (2013) seems to contradict the female-risk pattern. It found middle-school brothers showed more anxiety than sisters. The gap flips by college age, so the studies track different life stages, not a true clash.
Cohn et al. (2007) and Dudley et al. (2019) echo the same theme: siblings of autistic people often feel more stress or pessimism than siblings of people with Down syndrome. L et al. add that sisters carry extra emotional weight within the autism group.
Why it matters
When you run sibling support groups, split content by gender. Offer sisters space to process negative feelings even when family looks "fine." Add sense-of-coherence skill drills from Alon (2025) to boost resilience. A quick mood check at intake can flag sisters who may need deeper help.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The present study focused on typically developing siblings (TDS) in emerging adulthood of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and sought insight into how gender may interact with positive and negative affects in this population. In addition, we aimed to explore the gender differences as a moderator in the link between personal resources (i.e., family cohesion and flexibility coping strategy) and positive and negative affects among such TDS. An understanding of gender differences in this population should prove relevant to the development of potential interventions. METHOD: A total of 116 emerging adult (age 18-29) TDS of younger siblings with ASD (the latter were under the age of 18 at the time of data collection), 80 females and 36 males, participated in the study. All participants completed self-report measures. RESULTS: Female TDS reported higher negative affect than male TDS, while no differences emerged regarding positive affect. Female siblings reported higher family cohesion and higher flexibility in the forward-focused subscale of flexibility coping strategy, but not in its trauma-focused subscale, compared to male siblings. Additionally, gender moderates the links between family cohesion and positive affect but not negative affect. Gender also moderates the association between flexibility and negative affect, but not positive affect. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the gender differences among TDS in emerging adulthood of individuals with ASD in relation to negative affect, family cohesion, and flexibility coping strategy. Understanding the gender-specific internal and external experiences of TDS as interplaying with their resources, at the unique developmental stage of emerging adulthood, may afford to identify TDS in need and to suggest potential interventions.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103829