1 Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center, USA.
2 The University of California, Irvine, USA.
Autism. 2018 Apr;22(3):311-321. doi: 10.1177/1362361316674438. Epub 2016 Dec 21.
The two prior studies that have examined associations between the sibling constellation and theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder yielded discrepant findings. Thus, efforts to better understand the sibling-theory of mind link in autism spectrum disorder are necessary. This study examined a sample of prekindergarten- and kindergarten-aged (i.e. 4-6 years) typically developing children ( n = 39) and verbal children with autism spectrum disorder ( n = 61). Sibling presence, number of siblings, and having younger and older siblings were positively associated with theory of mind in typically developing children, but not in the full sample of children with autism spectrum disorder. However, in the subgroup of children with autism spectrum disorder without sibling recurrence, the presence of at least one older sibling was positively associated with theory of mind. Findings expand previous limited research on the sibling-theory of mind link in children with autism spectrum disorder by demonstrating a potential difference in the influence of the sibling constellation between children from simplex and multiplex families.
先前有两项研究考察了孤独症谱系障碍中兄弟姐妹结构与心理理论之间的关联，结果得出了不一致的发现。因此，有必要努力更好地理解孤独症谱系障碍中兄弟姐妹与心理理论之间的联系。本研究调查了一个学前和幼儿园年龄（即 4-6 岁）的典型发育儿童（n=39）和有孤独症谱系障碍的语言儿童（n=61）样本。兄弟姐妹的存在、兄弟姐妹的数量以及有年幼和年长的兄弟姐妹与典型发育儿童的心理理论呈正相关，但与孤独症谱系障碍儿童的全样本无关。然而，在没有兄弟姐妹复发的孤独症谱系障碍儿童亚组中，至少有一个年长的兄弟姐妹的存在与心理理论呈正相关。研究结果通过展示来自单纯和多重家庭的儿童的兄弟姐妹结构对心理理论的影响存在潜在差异，扩展了先前关于孤独症谱系障碍儿童中兄弟姐妹与心理理论联系的有限研究。
