Testing the Feasibility of a Nursing Intervention Focusing on Family Management for Caregivers of Children with Autism

Abstract

Objective: This pilot study aimed to investigate the feasibility and effects of a nursing intervention focusing on family management for caregivers of children with autism.Material and Methods: Five primary caregivers of children with autism, who visited a hospital in Vietnam were recruited by convenience sampling. All participants were parents, with mean age of 33.40 (+5.46) years, who attended weekly family-management intervention for four consecutive weeks. The intervention was adapted from the Building on Family Strengths program and guided by the Family Management Style Framework. The Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale and the Caregiver's Strain Questionnaire were used to measure outcomes at three-point times, namely, baseline (week 0), post-intervention (week 4), and follow-up (week 8). Descriptive statistics and Friedman test were used in data analysis .Results: The age of children with autism was from 4-8 years old (M=5.60). The findings revealed that the participants attended all implementation sessions without dropping out. Significant positive changes in the quality of family life and the burden of the caregivers were found among the participants after receiving the intervention.Conclusion: The family-management intervention was feasible and beneficial to family caregivers of children with autism in Vietnam. Future studies should explore the effectiveness of this intervention in randomized controlled trials with a larger sample size. This intervention would be more appropriate as integral component in the services for family and children with autism.