It is a well-known fact that the parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are responsible for identifying, selecting, and even implementing treatments. Several factors influence this choice, such as the child’s age, cognitive functioning, ASD symptoms, family income, parent education, and cultural background. There is a chance that parents’ perceptions of ASD also may contribute. Researchers conducted this study to explore whether parents’ perceptions of ASD, along with family- and child-specific characteristics, predicted the use of various ASD treatment categories.
A total of 68 families from the IPQ-R participated. Logistic regression results indicated that when parent perceptions predicted using a treatment category, the relative contribution of perceptions was somewhat more substantial than a child- and family-specific factors.
The study concluded that the treatment category use was influenced by factors that include parents’ perceptions of control over ASD treatment, behaviors perceived to be related to ASD, and beliefs about the diagnosis’s chronicity. These findings are likely to contribute to a broader understanding of parents’ ASD treatment selection and enhance professionals’ ability to guide families’ decision-making.
Reference: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1088357615610547
