Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR
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J Intellect Disabil Res · Dec 2006
Child, parent and family factors as predictors of adjustment for siblings of children with a disability.
Siblings adjust to having a brother or sister with a disability in diverse ways. This study investigated a range of child, parent and family factors as predictors of sibling adjustment outcomes. ⋯ The results revealed that the family level of risk and resilience factors were better predictors of sibling adjustment than siblings' own experiences of stress and coping resources, highlighting the importance of familial and parental contributions to the sibling adjustment process. The implications of these results for the design of interventions and supports for siblings are discussed.
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Although coping with autism has been examined in a number of papers, virtually no research exists on how families cope over time. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study of parents coping with autism over a period of approximately a decade. ⋯ Coping strategies changed from the time of the initial study, as fewer parents coped through reliance on service providers, family support, social withdrawal and individualism and relatively more parents coped through their religious faith and other emotion-focused strategies. The results tentatively support previous research on coping that indicates that aging is linked to the use of more emotion-focused coping strategies.