title: How parents perceive and feel about participation in community activities. The comparison between parents of preschoolers with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders.
abstract: The present study compared how parents of preschoolers with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) perceived and felt about participation in community activities. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 380 Hong Kong parents of preschoolers with ASD and 214 Hong Kong parents of preschoolers without ASD. The two groups were not different in their willingness and frequency of participation in community activities. However, the psychological processes underneath their willingness were very different. Among the parents of preschoolers with ASD, their willingness was associated with how they perceived the difficulty and importance of the participation and what emotions they experienced during the activities. This pattern of association was not evident among the parents of preschoolers without ASD.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. lamsf@hkuusb.hku.hk
authors.forename: Shui-Fong
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: Bernard P H
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.forename: Daphne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Au-Yeung
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires