Keywords

Marital adjustment, autism, parents, multiples, perceived social support

Abstract

The current study investigated the relationship between raising multiple children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and martial adjustment and whether perceived social support moderates this relationship. The sample (n = 115) consisted of 77 parents of a single child diagnosed with an ASD and 44 parents of 2 or more children diagnosed with an ASD. There was no significant difference in martial adjustment between the parents of single versus multiple children with ASDs and no significant relationship between number of children with an ASD within a family and marital adjustment. Although the main hypotheses were not supported, data from experimental questions indicated that a majority of participants believed their marriage was affected by their child's ASD diagnosis and most rated this effect negatively. Further, for parents of multiple children with ASDs, the rating of degree of impact upon their marital relationship after the first diagnosis was significantly positively related to their marital impact rating following the second diagnosis, suggesting that parents who view the effects of the first diagnosis as negative are likely to view the effects of the second diagnosis negatively as well. Since there was no a significant relationship between number of children with and ASD and marital adjustment, social support was not tested as a moderator. However, there was a significant positive relationship between dyadic adjustment and perceived social support. Further research examining the effects of parenting multiple children with ASDs is warranted.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2014

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Tantleff-Dunn, Stacey

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Clinical Psychology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0005383

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0005383

Language

English

Release Date

August 2014

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences; Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic

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