Family Factors and Communicative Skills in Children with Autism Without Intellectual Disability

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) impacts families significantly.
• Understanding family dynamics is crucial for supporting children with ASD without intellectual disability (ID).
• Risk indicators like parental stress and social support influence family well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify family profiles of children with ASD (without ID) based on risk indicators.
• To examine differences in children's communicative skills across identified family subtypes.
• To investigate the role of sociodemographic, emotional, stress, support, and coping factors.

Main Methods:

• Cluster analysis was used to identify family subtypes.
• Participants included 52 Spanish mothers and their children diagnosed with ASD.
• Risk indicators assessed included sociodemographic, emotional, parental stress, social support, and coping strategies.

Main Results:

• Three family subtypes were identified: high-risk, moderate-risk, and little-risk.
• The 'little risk' profile demonstrated significantly lower parental stress.
• Children from 'little risk' families exhibited superior communication skills compared to other groups.

Conclusions:

• Family profiles based on risk indicators are identifiable.
• Lower-risk family environments are associated with reduced parental stress and enhanced child communication.
• Targeted interventions supporting coping and social support may benefit families of children with ASD.