Economic burden and psychological wellbeing among parents of children with autism and learning disability

Abstract

The word disability is stigmatized be it physical or mental disability. The disabled population along with the caregivers face unfriendly attitude in the society. The types of disability include loco-motor, hearing, speech, visual and mental disability. Many parents and families with a child diagnosed with autism farewell. However, a high level of parents experience stress, anxiety and depression. Autism is based on presence of persistent and pervasive deficits of social communication and interaction, and restricted and repetitive behaviors that interferes with functioning in everyday activities (American Psychiatric Association 2013). Additional stressors not related to child –specific factors, such as financial strain, changes in employment related to having a child with autism and caregiving responsibilities to other family members, can also influence maternal psychological wellbeing (Dardas & Ahmad 2014; Hodgetts et al. 2014). The birth of a child with a learning disability often has a profound effect on the family, requiring one or more family members (usually the parent(s)) to adopt the role of ‘carer’. Traditionally, research on caregiving for children and young people with disabilities has highlighted the stresses or burden’ imposed on parents by the many, and often complex, demands of caregiving (Brannan et al.1997; Egan & Walsh 2001; Hassall et al. 2005; McGilloway et al. 1995; Saloviita et al. 2003; Shearn & Todd 2000). The difficulties of managing the care recipient contribute to objective caregiver strain whilst subjective strain is more strongly related to caregiver characteristics and comprises internalized (e.g. worry, sadness) and externalized subjective strain (e.g. anger or resentment towards the child or the behavior). The aim was to study economic burden and psychological well being among parents with autistic and learning disability children. Parents of children aged between 8 to 12 years were considered for the study. The sample consisted of 30 parents of learning disability and 30 parents of autism. Financial impact scale and psychological well being questionnaire were administered to the parents. A purposive sampling technique was opted for the study. The mean, SD, and “t’ will be computed using appropriate statistical measures. The data will be further analyzed based on the obtained results.