Abstract
The aim of the study was to investigate the perception of the family functioning in parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with normal-range intelligence and the relationships between family functioning, parenting stress and quality of life. Dyads of parents of children with ASD without intellectual disability and parents of typically developing children (controls) completed a set of self-report questionnaires. Parents of children with ASD reported lower functioning of the family as a whole and their own functioning as family members; they exhibited higher levels of parenting stress and lower quality of life. Mothers of children with ASD experienced more stress in personal domain than fathers. Relationships between family functioning, parenting stress and quality of life have been established. There were also moderate to strong correlations in mother-father dyads between their assessments of family functioning, parenting stress and QoL in social relationships and environmental domains.
Highlights
Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) face multiple challenges due to their child’s developmental difficulties [1,2,3,4]
This study aims to investigate how Polish mothers and fathers of children with ASD without intellectual disability perceive the functioning of their families and to explore relationships between family functioning, parental stress and quality of life
In the parents of children with ASD group the inclusion criteria for the primary caregivers were as follows: (a) their child had a medical diagnosis of Asperger syndrome or childhood autism according to ICD-10 [55] criteria; (b) their child had no intellectual disability; c) their child lived at home with them; (d) their child was between 5 and 17 years old; (e) their child attended a mainstream or inclusive school; (f) no concomitant conditions in children with ASD; (g) no developmental disorders or serious health problems in other children in the family; (h) the parents were partners and living together; (i) both of them completed the questionnaires; (j) both of them were biological parents of the child
Summary
Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) face multiple challenges due to their child’s developmental difficulties [1,2,3,4]. Individuals with ASD are a highly heterogeneous group, they tend to be treated “as one homogeneous category” The need to conduct studies on less heterogeneous subgroups of families and to control for a variety of factors that shape parental adjustment, including child and family characteristics, has been already emphasized [6]. Considering that in recent years the number of children with ASD with normal-range intelligence has been growing [7,8,9], it seems necessary to seek a better understanding of the factors related to the adjustment of parents of this group of children.
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