Adolescent Coping and Family Functioning in the Family of a Child with Autism

Adolescent Siblings and Autism;Coping;Family Functioning;Nursing;Health Sciences;Nursing

Vliem, Sally J.Darling-Fisher, Cynthia S. ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Adolescent Siblings and Autism;    Coping;    Family Functioning;    Nursing;    Health Sciences;    Nursing;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/64809/sjvliem_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Autism is on the rise at an alarming rate. Autism impacts all members of a familyincluding siblings. There is much research that examines the etiology of autism but thereis little research that explores, from the sibling perspective, what it is like to have asibling with autism. There are studies that examine coping and the perception of familyfunctioning from the parent perspective, but there are few studies that examine copingand perception of family functioning from the adolescent perspective. The ResiliencyModel of Family Stress, Adjustment, and Adaptation (McCubbin & McCubbin, 1993)guided this exploratory, correlational study. The purpose of this study was to examine thecoping strategies used by adolescent siblings of children with autism and to examine howthese coping strategies influence their perception of family functioning. Qualitative datawere collected to help inform the quantitative results. Adolescents 11-21 years of agewere recruited through the Interactive Autism Network and completed the measuresonline via Survey Monkey. The most commonly used coping strategy, as measured by ACOPE,for adolescents in this study was seeking diversion. Females more frequently thanmales used the coping strategies developing social support, investing in close friends, andrelaxing. The younger adolescents used an increased number of and more varied copingstrategies than older adolescents. The adolescents perceived that their families functionedin the unhealthy range on five of the seven subscales on the Family Assessment Devicewith no statistically significant differences between males and females or between agegroups on perception of family functioning. Path analysis using multiple regressionrevealed significant negative relationships between coping strategies, self-concept,satisfaction with the sibling relationship, and family functioning and explained 44.2% ofthe variance in the proposed model. The results of this study provide a betterunderstanding of the complexities that adolescents who have siblings with autismencounter. Further research is needed to explore additional factors that influence familyfunctioning including examining family functioning with adolescents with typicallydeveloping siblings. The development of coping strategies in children and adolescentsalso needs further exploration.