Working parents of children with autism

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Hello,

To date, there has been little knowledge in understanding how parents of children with autism manage their work and family demands. Given the unique parenting roles associated with raising a child with autism, this can be quite difficult.
As a result, I am interested in studying ways in which parents of children with autism can more effectively manage their work and family demands for my master's thesis. I am a student at California State University, San Bernardino in the industrial-organizational psychology program. If you could please take my 10-15 minute survey, I would greatly appreciate it. I would like to use the results of my study to help inform organizations and individuals how to more effectively manage work and family challenges and the more participation I have, the more informative my results will be.

Here is the link to the survey:

http://csusbpsych.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_d4f4iN6V7uyXhxX

Please feel free to email me if you have questions.

Thank you,

Alyssa
[email protected]

Do you intend to continue with this line of research in the future, or is the data only going to be used in the present?

Hi Alyssa.

I'm thinking you might have wanted to post this in the parents' forum.
I wonder if there is really anything specia--from an HR or work-life balance perspective-- about the needs of parents of autistic children as opposed to other special needs children. The autistic spectrum is broad.

Good luck.

This seems to be survey season. Artifact of the academic calendar?

Hello,

From the research that has been conducted so far, it does appear that it is important to consider the unique needs of parents of children with autism as compared to parents of children with other special needs. It has been demonstrated that parents of children with autism experience more parenting stress as compared to parents of children with other special needs, which has implications for their ability to meet work demands. Of course workplace supports that assist in balancing work and family demands are helpful for all parents, but these may be even more so for parents of children with autism, given the unique parenting roles and challenges associated with raising a child with autism. I plan to carry on this research and compare the effects for parents of children with special needs in general and parents of typically developing children. I am currently focusing on this population because there is little known about their experiences and research has demonstrated the many challenges these parents have in the workforce. I hope I can identify some solutions to help mitigate these challenges.