Young people with autistic disorder, their mothers and siblings: family experiences and bioecological model

Abstract In the bioecological model, development is understood as the interaction between the subject and the multiple contexts in which it is inserted, taking into consideration the temporal dimension. In this direction, through a descriptive study, it was aimed to analyze the conceptions of young people with autism, their mothers and siblings about their family experiences. For that, interviews were conducted with 12 mothers, 17 siblings and 2 youngsters with autism, being transcribed and analyzed using the content analysis technique. The results have showed that the activities, support networks and conceptions described by the participants work as protective factors, even in the face of risk factors in their development. The present study raises new research questions and elucidates aspects of family experiences that are important to delineate interventions.