Insight into day-to-day lives of parents raising children with autism
A new study by Waisman Center researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison looks at the daily experiences of these parents to provide a more detailed picture of the strengths and vulnerabilities of couples raising a child with ASD. "I think we can use these findings to develop more effective therapies and strategies to address potential challenges in couple relationships for parents of children with ASD," says Sigan Hartley, lead author of the new study, published this month in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders . Previous findings have shown that, on average, couples with a child with ASD have higher risks of divorce and lower satisfaction with their marriages when compared to couples with a typically developing child. "What has been missing is research that really gets at the details of what is actually happening in the day-to-day lives of these couples," says Hartley, a Waisman Center researcher and 100 Women Chair in Human Ecology a...