The structure of parental attitude to the disease of a child with autism spectrum disorder

Relevance. The attitude towards illness of the patient and his relatives is one of the most significant problems of modern medicine in the organization of the treatment and rehabilitation process, both in somatic and psychiatric clinics. The problems associated with the involvement of parents in the process of treating children with mental developmental disorders, including those with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), are of interest to modern researchers.
Intention is to determine the structure of parental attitude to the diseases of a child with ASD, to establish a connection with the characteristics of parent-child relationships and coping behavior strategies of parents.
Methodology. The study involved 75 families raising children aged 3-5 years with clinically verified diagnoses according to ICD-10 (F84.0x – childhood autism, F84.1x – atypical autism). When examining parents, the following methods were used: a method for diagnosing attitudes towards a child’s diseases (Kagan V.E., Zhuravleva I.P.), a scale of general clinical impression (CGIs), an interview questionnaire for parents to determine the level of awareness of a child’s diseases (Ivanov M.V., Bogacheva O.I.), a modified questionnaire of parental attitudes (Varga A.Ya. and Stolin V.V.) for families raising a special child (Galasyuk I.N., Mitina O.V.), a questionnaire of strategies coping behavior of R. Lazarus and S. Folkman (adapted by Wasserman L.I. et al.). Statistical analysis was performed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient.
Results and Discussion. Parents raising children with ASD in the first stages after diagnosis are characterized by low rates on the nosognosia scale, indicating that parents tend to underrate the severity of the child’s condition (hyponosognosia), in some cases there is a denial of the disease (anosognosia). In most cases, parents do not tend to show strong anxiety about the disease. Parents tend to underestimate the need to limit the activity of the child and adhere to the regimen prescribed by the attending physician. Also, among the leading types of attitude to the child’s diseases in parents, external and internal types of attitude to the child’s diseases are revealed. Correlation analysis made it possible to establish links between indicators of the attitude of parents to the child’s diseases and a number of other psychological characteristics obtained during the examination of the parents of children, such as coping behavior strategies of parents and parent-child relationships.
Conclusion. The obtained data on the structure of parental attitude towards illness of a child with ASD can be used in the clinical and psychological support of the family in order to increase the effectiveness of the set of treatment and rehabilitation measures.

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