Multidisciplinary Parent Education for Caregivers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2014.06.003Get rights and content

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary parent education program focused on improving health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study included 42 participants (22 intervention, 20 wait-list control) who were the main caregivers of children with ASD. Data were collected at baseline and post-intervention. At the end of the multidisciplinary parent education program, significant improvements were observed in the mental HRQOL, family functioning, self-efficacy and positive coping style. The results indicate that a multidisciplinary parent education program, designed for caregivers of children with ASD, may have positive effects on caregivers' mental health-related quality of life, while having little effect on their physical health-related quality of life.

Section snippets

Theoretical framework

The theoretical foundation of the multidisciplinary parent education intervention was based on Khanna et al.'s (2011) conceptual model of factors influencing HRQOL among caregivers of children with ASD. This conceptual model was also confirmed in our previous study (Ji et al., 2014). Consistent with this conceptual model, Psychologist Albert Bandura (Luszczynska & Schwarzer, 2005) defined self-efficacy as one's belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations. This sense of

Purpose of the study

The main aim of the current study was to assess the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary parent education program designed to improve health-related quality of life in caregivers of children with ASD.

Research Design

This research was conducted as a quasi-experimental study to assess the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary parent education program, prepared to improve health-related quality of life for caregivers of children with ASD.

Sample

This is a quasi-experimental study, conducted in two autism rehabilitation centers in Hunan Province of China from June to July 2013. The study sample consisted of 50 caregivers of children with ASD in two autism rehabilitation centers (Ai-meng rehabilitation center and

Socio-Demographic Variables of Caregivers and Children With ASD

The socio-demographic information collected from the caregivers included: age, gender, educational level, religious belief, marital status, caregiver-child relationship, place of residence, employment status, number of children, and family income and caring time (hours spent caring for children with ASD per day). Participants were also asked to answer a personal-health questionnaire to identify their child's age, gender, rehabilitation time, age of diagnosis and payment of medical expenses.

Short Form-36 (SF-36)

The

Results

There were 22 eligible caregivers allocated to the intervention group and 20 to the wait-list control group. Caregivers' average age was 34.10 years, 90% were female, 93% were married, 98% had no religious belief, 83% were the mothers, 76% were unemployed, and 50% were living in a small town or rural area. The average caring time was 18.62 hours. The proportion of caregivers who reported that they had received high school or higher education was 83% and 62% of families had income of less than

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of multidisciplinary parent education on HRQOL for caregivers of children with ASD in a controlled quasi-experimental design. Results indicate that there are significant differences in measures of mental HRQOL, family functioning, self-efficacy and positive coping style for caregivers in the multidisciplinary parent education condition compared with those in the wait-list control condition. However, there were no significant differences in

Conclusions

The results of this study have demonstrated that multidisciplinary parent education can be effective in reducing family problems, and improving positive coping style, self-efficacy and mental HRQOL in caregivers with children with ASD. Parent education is increasing in China. Implementing such parent education programs in this area will be effective in improving quality of life and well-being for caregivers of children with ASD.

Acknowledgment

This research was supported by Central South University (CX2012B083) awarded to Binbin Ji.

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