Siblings and social interaction development of individuals with ASD: A systematic review

Sibling relationships may play a unique role in the social development of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research suggests that the involvement of siblings within focused intervention contexts can be beneficial for the social skills improvement of individuals with ASD. However, compared to research focusing on the impact of individuals with ASD on their siblings, there is relatively little research about the influence of siblings on the social interaction development of individuals with ASD. As an important exploratory step, this systematic review aims to summarize existing literature that investigated siblings relative to the development of social interactions of individuals with ASD. A total of 105 studies were included in this review regarding social interaction development of siblings and individuals with ASD, and a subset of 24 studies that focused on the influence of siblings on individuals with ASD were further analyzed. The results suggested that the majority of included studies (77.14%) focused on the social interaction outcomes of the siblings rather than individuals with ASD with variability regarding studies’ variables of interest. Implications and future directions are also discussed.