title: Mothers of adolescents and adults with autism: parenting multiple children with disabilities.
abstract: We examined types of disabilities in siblings from a large sample of families of adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and the impact of another child with a disability on maternal and family well-being. The most frequent disabilities in siblings were attention and hyperactivity (4.6%) and autism spectrum (2.4%) disorders and psychiatric (2.1%) and learning (2.0%) disabilities. Mothers parenting another child with a disability (in addition to the child with ASD) had higher levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety and lower family adaptability and cohesion compared with mothers whose only child with a disability had ASD (matched on child age and family size). Findings are discussed with respect to understanding the needs of such families, including service provision.
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation Counseling, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University, MA 02215, USA. gorsmond@bu.edu
authors.forename: Gael I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Orsmond
authors.forename: Ling-Yi
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Marsha Mailick
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Seltzer
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D019988:Children with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D019989:Persons with Intellectual Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D035781:Siblings; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires