Parental concerns of children with ASD by age: A qualitative analysis
Parental concerns of children with ASD by age: A qualitative analysis
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.rasd.2021.101817
复制
发表时间：
2021-06-07
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Landa, Rebecca
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Pfeiffer, Danika;Holingue, Calliope;Landa, Rebecca
背景：引起家长对孩子的担忧是ASD诊断过程中重要的第一步。这些信息通常是通过使用专业术语的强制选择问卷收集的，可能会限制可以报告的潜在问题。迄今为止，父母关注的研究主要使用演绎定性方法，仅针对一个年龄组的儿童。在一个编码方案下，需要进行归纳定性研究来检查跨年龄组自闭症儿童的父母关注。方法：我们采用归纳定性分析方法，分析1-11岁儿童家长在城市门诊ASD专科诊所的摄入表格（n = 455）中报告的担忧。分析基于三个年龄组（幼儿、学龄前儿童、儿童中期）。结果：使用传统的内容分析，从家长的回答中出现了12类关注：沟通、社交、行为/情感、认知、生活技能、非典型行为、感官、学术、健康、寻求诊断清晰度或资源、发展和运动技能。我们发现，在12个类别中的6个类别中，不同年龄段的父母对孩子的担忧是相同的。各年龄组所报告的担忧最大的差异是，学龄前儿童和中期儿童的父母比学步儿童的父母报告的与心理健康有关的担忧更多。结论：根据孩子的年龄，我们的分析得出了父母关注的相似点和不同点的具体信息。确保自闭症谱系障碍的评估是根据儿童的独特需求量身定制的，这对及时诊断和获得护理具有重要意义。
Background: Eliciting parents' concerns about their children is an important initial step in the ASD diagnostic process. This information is often collected through forced-choice questionnaires utilizing professional terminology and may limit the potential concerns that can be reported. Parent concern studies to date have largely used deductive qualitative methods with only one age group of children. Inductive qualitative studies are needed to examine parental concerns of children with ASD across age groups with one coding scheme. Method: We used an inductive qualitative analysis process to analyze concerns reported by parents of children ages 1-11 years on intake forms (n = 455) at an urban outpatient ASD specialty clinic. Analyses were based on three age groups (toddler, preschooler, middle childhood). Results: Using conventional content analysis, 12 categories of concerns emerged from parents' responses: communication, social, behavioral/emotional, cognition, life skills, atypical behaviors, sensory, academic, health, seeking diagnostic clarity or resources, developmental, and motor skills. We found that parents reported the same concerns about their children across age groups in six of the 12 categories. The biggest difference in reported concerns across age groups was that parents of children in the preschooler and middle childhood groups reported a greater number of concerns related to mental health than parents of toddlers. Conclusion: Our analysis yields specific information about similarities and differences in parents' concerns depending on their child's age. Ensuring that ASD evaluations are tailored to children's unique needs has implications for timely diagnosis and access to care.