Autistic Perspectives of Sibling Relationships: Clinical Implications for the Use of Quantitative Measures in Family Autism Research

Prior research on autistic sibling relationship quality largely ignored autistic sibling perspectives. Researchers continue to prioritize allistic (non-autistic) siblings’ notions of relationship quality, preventing clinicians from faithfully measuring and supporting the relational well-being of autistic clients. The present study aims to understand adult autistic sibling relationship quality from both the perspective of autistic and allistic siblings, and how the combination of sibling neurocognitive functioning styles in sibling pairs impacts these results. Our sample ( N = 211) is from a larger study of college students asked about their sibling relationships, with the following subgroups: 15 autistic participant and sibling pairs (both autistic), 51 allistic participants with autistic siblings (participant allistic, sibling autistic), and 145 allistic participants and sibling pairs (both allistic). We operationalized sibling relationship quality as intimacy using the Intimacy Scale (IS), and warmth using the Adult Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (ASRQ). We conducted analyses with ANOVA and post hoc tests. Results indicate that both sibling warmth ( F = 15.24, p < 0.001) and sibling intimacy ( F = 18.33, p < 0.001) differ significantly by sibling neurocognitive style combination. Sibling neurocognitive style combination still independently predicted sibling warmth ( F = 6.64, p < 0.01) and intimacy ( F = 3.66, p < 0.01) when controlling for demographics. We consider the implications of these findings, including the risks of perpetuating discrimination and a clinical ideology of cure when attempting to measure and operationalize relationship quality with autistic people.