A longitudinal study of sibling bullying and mental health in autistic adolescents: The role of self‐esteem

Abstract

Sibling bullying is associated with poor mental health in autistic adolescents. The reasons for this remain unknown. In the current study, we attempted to replicate the existing findings on the direct associations between sibling bullying and mental health in autistic adolescents and expand knowledge by focusing on the indirect associations through self‐esteem. We made use of existing data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative UK‐based birth cohort study. We fitted a mediation model to longitudinal data from a sample of 416 autistic adolescents aged 11, 14, and 17 years old who had at least one sibling. We found that sibling bullying was prevalent in the lives of autistic adolescents, especially in those who were late‐diagnosed, had a shared bedroom, and lived in a low‐income household. Additionally, increased sibling bullying in early adolescence was a significant predictor of reduced self‐esteem in mid‐adolescence; in turn, reduced self‐esteem predicted poorer mental health and wellbeing in late adolescence. Our findings indicate that sibling bullying in early adolescence may indirectly lead to poorer mental health and wellbeing in late adolescence through a reduction in self‐esteem in mid‐adolescence in autistic adolescents. We discuss the implications of these findings further.

Sibling Violence and Bullying Behaviors in Peers: The Mediational Role of Self-Esteem

“…These results are consistent with those found in previous studies, so negotiation, as a problem-solving strategy, solves problems in peer relationships [93]. This "cooperative solution of sibling conflict and a general sense of goodwill between siblings certainly can enhance children's adjustment" [58] (p. 10), namely high self-esteem, which can be extended to peer relationships. In addition, siblings can learn from siblings to solve problems or negotiate, and this can contribute as a protective factor in other contexts [94].…”

“…Thus, victimization due to psychological and physical aggression with severe damage seems to predict lower levels of self-esteem, which, in turn, predicts greater school victimization through social exclusion and verbal aggression. Thus, it is suggested that being a victim of aggressive behavior on the part of siblings predisposes the adolescent to low self-esteem [14,58]. As a result, the adolescent, considering themselves to be undeserving of love and affection, also becomes vulnerable to aggression by the peer group, being vulnerable to bullying [62,67].…”

“…It should be noted that according to some studies [36,50], a common characteristic of sibling violence is low self-esteem. In addition, sibling violence seems to influence mental health, with wellbeing [28,57] and the low self-esteem of victims [14,58] or perpetrators [58] being mentioned in the literature. For example, in a retrospective study, Plamondon et al (2021) [28] intended to explore whether sibling bullying victimization mediates the relationship between family dynamics during childhood and adolescence and young adults' current well-being.…”

Applicability and Psychometric Properties of General Mental Health Assessment Tools in Autistic People: A Systematic Review

“…In relation to the self-rating instruments, evidence of reliability (i.e., internal consistency) in the adequate to excellent range was reported for the ASEBA-Youth Self-Report (YSR) (Mazefsky et al, 2014), SDQ (Deniz & Toseeb, 2023;Khor et al, 2014), and RCADS (Khalfe et al, 2023;Sterling et al, 2015). Evidence of good or excellent internal consistency and convergent validity was observed for the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995;Park et al, 2020) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; Uljarevic et al, 2018;Zigmond & Snaith, 1983).…”

“…Regarding the study population, there was a notable lack of population-based studies (only 7% of the investigations: ABC: Chua et al, 2023;Rohacek et al, 2023 Deniz & Toseeb, 2023;Milosavljevic et al, 2016;Totsika et al, 2013), with the majority being convenience samples with participants recruited from clinics and other preexisting services. A significant proportion of the papers (26%; n = 43) relied on parent-reported clinical autism diagnoses or diagnoses derived from enrollment in schools for autistic people (see Appendix F for the risk of bias assessment).…”