1. Autism Spectrum Disorders and Family Functioning Sabrina Grondhuis Psychology and Social Behavior University of California, Irvine May 31, 2008

2. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Developmental disorder characterized by 3. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior American Psychiatric Association (2000) 2. Deficits in communication 1. Impaired social interactions

3. 1 in 150 children is diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007)

4. The Current Project Investigations into multiple areas: - Social Support - Father Involvement - Marital Quality - Psychosocial Wellbeing

5. Social Support Internal Support - e.g. family External Support - e.g. friends

6. Social Support Actual sources of support Perceived sources of support

7. InternalExternal Actual Perceived Actual Internal Actual External Perceived Internal Perceived External Terminology

8. Hypotheses Parents of children with ASD would utilize more external resources than parents of typically developing children. Parents of children with ASD will utilize internal resources less than parents of typically developing children.

9. Method Subjects from the existing UCI Autism Research Project subject pool Also recruitment from For OC Kids Mothers and fathers completed identical questionnaire packets and individually return them to the lab N = 48

10. The Parents 32 Mothers (66.6%) 16 Fathers (33.3%) 14 Dyads, including one set of female life partners Marital Status 85.5% Married 2% Single, Never Married 8.5% Divorced 4% Widowed

11. The Parents cont. Ethnicity: 77% Caucasian 2% African American 10.5% Hispanic 10.5% Asian/Pacific Islander Education Levels: 4% High School 12% Some College 44% Four Year College 39.5% Advanced Degree

12. The Children ASD 25 children Ages 6-17, M=11.5, SD=3.57 Typical Children 9 children Ages 9-14, M=11.2, SD=1.86

13. Measures Actual Social Support –Family Support Scale, 19 items (Dunst et al., 1988) “In the last 3 to 6 months, how helpful were each of the following in raising your child?” (1=not helpful at all to 5=extremely helpful) e.g. Spouse, coworkers, special education teachers, doctors.

14. Measures Continued Perceived Social Support –Social Support Behaviors Scale, 90 items (Vaux, et al, 1987) “How likely is it that somebody would” (1=no one would do this to 5=most would certainly do this) e.g. Would comfort me if I was upset Would loan me a sum of money

15. Findings Compared to parents of typically developing children, parents of children with ASD reported lower means of: InternalExternal Actual Perceived Actual Internal p <.056 Perceived Internal p <.003 Perceived External p <.000

16. More Findings Families with a child with ASD reported more actual external support (p =.019) BUT when evaluating for sources applicable to all respondents, there was no significant difference (p =.687)

17. Still More Findings Findings were replicated when evaluating data based on: - One member per family unit - Gender and ASD - Gender

18. Future Research Research is ongoing, so a larger sample for greater generalizability and to increase power to detect small and moderate differences Comparison to parents of children with other developmental disabilities

19. Thank you! Dr. Wendy Goldberg Dr. Valerie Jenness Agnes Ly Maryam Abdullah Kara Thorsen Christine Garrison Social Ecology Honors Seminar

20. Contact Information Sabrina Grondhuis sgrondhu@uci.edu