Psychometric Properties of the Impact on Family of ASD Children and a Control Group in Albania

• Pages: 24-30

24

Vol. 7 No.3

January, 2022

Balkan Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

ISSN 2410-759X

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

Psychometric Properties of the Impact on Family of ASD Children and a

Control Group in Albania

PhD Anita Pilika

Faculty of Medicine, Neuroscience Department, Psychiatric Service (University Hospital

Center Mother Teresa), Tirana, Albania

Abstract

Background: Autistic Spectrum Disorder, (ASD) is a lifelong disability that impairs 3 main

areas; communication skills, social interaction and behavioral paerns. Despite the increasing

involvement of parents as child’s therapist in interventions, lile is known about the eects

of involvement on the whole family. Parenting a child with ASD endures more stress than

parenting a child with any other disability & heightens negative outcomes on health. The

children & families living with ASD face many practicable & emotional challenges.

Objectives: Minimal research has focused on the stress & impact on the parents & family of

ASD children, & in particular the origin of such stress & depression. Consequently, the present

study aempts s to examine the degree of impact on the family a child with ASD has.

Methods: Participants were 60 parents of ASD children, and 60 parents of children without ASD.

Translational validity was undertaken to ascertain whether the content of the questionnaire

was appropriate and relevant to the study purpose. Questionnaires aimed to examine the

impact on family of an ASD child compared to the control cohort.

Results: Factor analysis with equamax rotation yielded an interpretable structure with 5

factors – nancial, social, personal, mastery and impact on siblings - accounting for 55.2% of

the variance. The convergent and dierential validity of the scales was supported. Coecient

alphas for the respective subscales were between .67 and .75 and for the full Scale was .71.

Corrected item-total correlations were within acceptable boundaries. All the correlations were

signicant (p < .001).

Conclusion: The overall results indicate that for assessing the impact on the family of an ASD

child in Albania the locally translated version of IFS is a reliable and valid instrument because

it displays ve domains of that impact. Having a child with ASD has a large impact on the

family. Financial, social and personal domains exhibit the greatest impact, with mastery rating

slightly behind

Keywords: ASD, family, impact.

Introduction

Families coping with ASD are searching for answers about causes, diagnosis and

treatment (National Institute of Mental Health, 2004). Despite the increasing involve-

ment of parents as the child’s therapist in interventions for their autistic child, much

research has focused on the outcome for the child, with lile known about the ef-

fects of involvement on the whole family (Williams and Wishart, 2003). Children and

families living with ASD face many emotional and practical challenges, and of all the

diculties that can beset parents, having a child with ASD ranks among the worst

(Ives and Munro, 2003; Hewson, Icasiano, Machet and Cooper, 2003). Some psychiat-

ric problems and anxiety traits seen in parents of ASD children have been associated

with the burden of caring for their ASD child (Murphy, Bolton, Pickels, Fombonne,