Home Forums Autism Research Are you a Mum raising a child with high functioning autism or asperger’s?

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    • Anonymous
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      Hello Mums,As part of my health psychology studies I am doing a research study on raising a child with autism. The focus will be on comparing stress, coping and quality of life of Mums who have a diagnosis for their child and those who do not yet have a diagnosis for their child.If you are raising a child whom you believe has high functioning autism or asperger's could you spare 20 minutes or so to fill in my questionniare?This is the link to my questionnaire: http://uwepsych.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0TmQAlGJGpdRv9OI will also be doing face-to-face and telephone interviews to get a more indepth picture of what it has been like to get a diagnosis and how that has been for you. I would love to hear from you if you would be interested in taking part. I can be PM'd or my university email address is ashlee2.mulimba@uwe.ac.uk.Please feel free to contact me with any questions, and thank you so much if you are taking part!Best wishes,Ashlee Mulimba

    • Anonymous
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      Post count: 8

      Hello Everyone,Thank you again to everyone who has helped me with my research so far.This is an appeal for more help. I am a post-graduate health psychologist focuing my research on addressing this issue of diagnosis.No studies have looked at the effect of non-diagnosis on the parents. I want to compare stress, coping and health related quality of life of Mums who have a diagnosis for their child and those who do not yet have a diagnosis for their child. I am hoping to publish the findings to further highlight the need for better support for the children and their families during the diagnosis process.If you are raising a child whom you believe has high functioning autism or Asperger’s could you spare 20 minutes or so to fill in my questionniare? I am using well-used questionnaires to measure parental stress, coping methods and quality of life, some seem quite long but usually it will take no more than 15 minutes to finish the whole survey.This is the link to my questionnaire: http://uwepsych.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0TmQAlGJGpdRv9O I can be PM'd or my email address is ashlee2.mulimba@uwe.ac.uk if you have any comments, suggestion or help!Please feel free to contact me with any questions, and thank you again if you are taking part!Best wishes,Ashlee Mulimba

    • Anonymous
      Inactive
      Post count: 8

      Hello Mums, I have had a great response for this research. I nearly have enough completed surveys to make the research valid. Would anyone else like to have a go?http://uwepsych.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0TmQAlGJGpdRv9OMany thanks!

    • Anonymous
      Inactive
      Post count: 8

      Hi everyone,I now have enough questionnaires to make this research valid, thanks everyone for all your support! I will be keeping the survey open for another month in case anyone elso would like to fill it in, the more surveys completed the stronger the research.Best wishes,Ashlee

    • Anonymous
      Inactive
      Post count: 8

      Thank you everyone who helped out with this research, I had a fantastic 84 responses to the questionnaire and 9 interviews. I have closed the questionnaire. I will now be processing the results and will keep you all posted!Best wishes,Ashlee

    • Anonymous
      Inactive
      Post count: 8

      Hello everyone!I wanted to write to you all to let you know the initial results of this study before I go on maternity leave. The questionnaires looked at stress, coping and quality of life (health and mental health). I also asked questions around your circumstances, for example, marital status, length of time seeking a diagnosis and working status to see if they influenced the other questionnaires.I was surprised to find significant results in quite a number of subscales in the questionnaires between those mums who have a diagnosis and those who are still seeking a diagnosis. The personal circumstances did not seem to have an effect on the differences between both groups.Mums who were seeking a diagnosis had significantly higher Parental Distress and overall Stress levels than those who had a diagnosis. They also scored their child’s behaviours as more difficult to handle than those mums whose children had a diagnosis.Mums scored significantly much higher in the mental health component of the quality of life questionnaire meaning they were more prone to depression and stress. Mums who had a diagnosis were more likely to use social support as a coping strategy.Overall 84 people filled in the questionnaires so I have had a fantastic response with meaningful results. Unfortunately I have not been able to process the interviews yet but will be doing this when I get back to this research. I will be taking a couple of months off for maternity leave but when I return to this work I will be aiming to publish these findings. I will keep you all posted. I will still be checking in on my emails from time to time so feel free to email me if you would like more information or have any questions. My email address is ashlee2.mulimba@uwe.ac.uk. Thank you all so much for your help and support. Best wishesAshlee

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