Divorce, Separation, and Relationship Satisfaction Among Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Open Access

Letourneau, Nicole Rochelle (2013)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/zk51vh61x?locale=en
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Abstract

Many potential sources of stress exist in families in which at least one child has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the experience of parenting a child with an ASD may impact the quality of the relationship between the parents; yet, little research has been done on marital outcomes and relationship satisfaction in parents of children with an ASD. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between a child's diagnosis of ASD and parental divorce or separation and the association between a child's diagnosis of ASD and relationship satisfaction of the parents. The data used for this study were taken from the 2011 - 2012 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), conducted by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey program. The total sample size for this analysis was 70,323 completed child-level interviews. Of the included interviews, 1,787 children (2.54%) were identified as having ever been diagnosed with ASD. After controlling for covariates related to child, parent, and household characteristics, a child having been diagnosed with an ASD was significantly associated with parental divorce or separation occurring after the child's birth (OR: 1.94 (1.72, 2.19); p<.0001). Parents of children with an ASD were also more likely than parents without children with an ASD to report being not too happy or fairly happy with their relationship rather than very happy or completely happy (p<.0001). Within the group of families with a child with an ASD, severity was associated with divorce or separation and decreased relationship satisfaction. These findings suggest that raising a child with an ASD contributes to the likelihood of divorce, separation, and relationship dissatisfaction among parents, and these findings suggest that parents of children with an ASD may benefit from interventions that address marital and relationship conflict.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

I. Background ......................................................................................................................1

II. Methods ..........................................................................................................................8

III. Results .........................................................................................................................16

IV. Discussion ...................................................................................................................22

References .........................................................................................................................30

Appendix A: Tables and Figures ......................................................................................33

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