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furaretal.2022.theimpactofcovid-19onindividualswithasdintheus_pv
Journal article

The impact of COVID-19 on individuals with ASD in the US: Parent perspectives on social and support concerns

  • Furar, Emily ORCID Hearing Research and Communication Disorders Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
  • Wang, Florence Hearing Research and Communication Disorders Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
  • Durocher, Jennifer S. Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, United States of America
  • Ahn, Yeojin A. ORCID Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, United States of America
  • Memis, Idil Hearing Research and Communication Disorders Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
  • Cavalcante, Leylane Hearing Research and Communication Disorders Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
  • Klahr, Lorena Hearing Research and Communication Disorders Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
  • Samson, Andrea C. ORCID Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland. Faculty of Psychology, Unidistance Suisse, Brig, Switzerland
  • Van Herwegen, Jo Department of Psychology and Human Development, UCL, Institute of Education, University College London, London, United Kingdom
  • Dukes, Daniel Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland. Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
  • Alessandri, Michael Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, United States of America
  • Mittal, Rahul Hearing Research and Communication Disorders Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
  • Eshraghi, Adrien A. ORCID Hearing Research and Communication Disorders Laboratory, Department of Otolaryngology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America. Department of Neurological Surgery, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America. Department of Pediatrics, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
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  • 17.08.2022
Published in:
  • PLOS ONE / Federici, Stefano. - Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 2022, vol. 17, no. 8, p. e0270845
COVID 19
Children
Pandemics
Autism spectrum disorder
Surveys
Intellectual disability
Disabilities
Schools
English The COVID-19 pandemic’s disruptions to daily routines and services have proven especially challenging for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families. The current retrospective study aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s social environmental changes on parental ratings of personal and child concerns about family conflict, opportunities for social interaction, and loss of institutional support (school and therapy services). Analyses of responses from families with ASD in the US determined differences in concerns across three time points which were measured simultaneously: prior to COVID-19, at the start of COVID-19, and at the time of survey completion. From our sample of 246 school-aged children, parents retrospectively reported significantly increasing levels of concern for both themselves and their children over time, with parents’ personal concern levels rated consistently higher than their ratings of their child’s level of concern. Concerns about loss of institutional support were higher for parents of children reported as having cooccurring intellectual disability. Further, parents of younger children also reported more concerns about loss of services, as well as more social concerns. For parent ratings of child concerns, children who were reportedly aware of COVID-19 were determined to have higher levels of social concerns and concerns about loss of institutional support. Meanwhile, the child’s age and gender did not impact their parent ratings of child concerns. The increased level of parental and child-perceived concerns over the course of the pandemic suggests a need for improved service delivery and support for these families. The high levels of concerns observed in the current study provide support for the need to assess amilies’
priorities and tailor services to best meet families’ needs. This will potentially increase the quality of life of family members, and improve ASD services across the lifespan, and improve outcomes.
Faculty
Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
Department
Département de Pédagogie spécialisée
Language
  • English
Classification
Special education
License
CC BY
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/324804
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