Autism Spectrum Symptomatology in Children: The Impact of Family and Peer Relationships

Abstract

This study examines the potential impact of family conflict and cohesion, and peer support/bullying on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While such impacts have been established for a range of non-ASD childhood disorders, these findings may not generalize to children with ASD because of unique problems in perspective-taking, understanding others' emotion, cognitive rigidity, and social reasoning. A structural model-building approach was used to test the extent to which family and peer variables directly or indirectly affected ASD via child anxiety/depression. The sample (N = 322) consisted of parents of children with ASD referred to two specialist clinics. The sample contained parents of children with Autistic Disorder (n = 76), Asperger Disorder (n = 188), Pervasive Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (n = 21), and children with a non-ASD or no diagnosis (n = 37). Parents completed questionnaires on-line via a secure website. The key findings were that anxiety/depression and ASD symptomatology were significantly related, and family conflict was more predictive of ASD symptomatology than positive family/peer influences. The results point to the utility of expanding interventions to include conflict management for couples, even when conflict and family distress is low. Further research is needed on the potentially different meanings of family cohesion and conflict for children with ASD relative to children without ASD.

Effectiveness of the Pivotal Response Treatment on the Degree of Question-Asking of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Single-Subject Research

“…Results of this study were not consistent with other studies done on the efficacy of floortime intervention on communication problems and social skills of children with autism spectrum disorder [7,[11][12][13][14]. The lack of coherence between the results of these studies and the results of this study is that in all of these studies, the group receiving floortime intervention was compared with a group that did not receive any intervention.…”

Parent and Family Outcomes of PEERS: A Social Skills Intervention for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The significant time × group interaction found on the CHAOS highlights the way in which the PEERS intervention, through the use of concurrent parent and teen sessions, may help improve the trajectory of family chaos or dysfunction for families heavily burdened by their child's diagnosis and associated impairments. Changes made during the intervention could very well improve the home environment post-treatment, making this setting more conducive to social gatherings, decreasing family disruption that often impedes social opportunities, and helping eliminate conflict that exacerbates ASD symptomology (Kelly et al 2008). In addition, the fact that parenting self-efficacy showed a statistically significant increase following PEERS intervention (though this was not significant over and above the waitlist control group) appears very important given the relationship between parenting selfefficacy and child behavior problems (Sofronoff and Farbotko 2002).…”

“…An increase in family conflict may also create a barrier to participating in enjoyable and potentially beneficial activities, as families of children with ASD have been found to limit involvement in community activities (Lam et al 2010). Notably, Kelly et al (2008) noted that family conflict was predictive of ASD symptom presentation and found that negative family relationships influenced ASD symptom manifestation more than positive family interactions. These findings are understandable given the propensity for most children with ASD to perform best in situations with order, structure, and routine.…”

Genetic Counseling in Autistic Phenotypes

“…Besides, they are at particularly high risk of comorbidities involving emotional and behaviour disorders, with direct consequences on their family. Family members have to adapt to a reality that, in addition to being new, is very heterogeneous, complex and difficult and that can result in conflicts that require intervention (Kelly et al, 2008).The disease eventually becomes the focus and other problems become unimportant; family members live only the disease and end up getting sick too (Balieiro & Cerveny, 2004). What is observed in practice is that when a child is diagnosed with ASD, parents experience a variety of very complicated feelings that are often unrelated to interventions involving the child, but related to the parents particular vision of the world (Wachtel & Carter, 2008).…”