Parental report of quality of life in autistic children and youths: the role of parents’ (informal) social support, and children’s active leisure time

Abstract

Research examining the quality of life (QoL) in children with autism in relation to leisure behavior is extremely rare. An online survey of parents (N = 282) was conducted to help to fill this gap. Using structural equation model (SEM), the association between the parents’ (informal) social support and children’s QoL (reported by parents) was examined. In this, parental behavior, children’s active leisure time, children’s TV consumption, as well as children’s self-worth (reported by the parents) were integrated. Findings suggested that the parents’ (informal) social support, children’s active leisure, and self-worth have a positive effect on children’s QoL. Implications of the results are discussed.

Keywords:

• autism
• parents
• social support
• quality of life
• leisure time

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all 327 parents who participated in the original online survey. The authors would also like to thank the regional associations and autism therapy centers as well as autism Germany e.V. for the recruitment support. The authors would also like to thank Solveig Haselbach for providing English correction on a previous draft.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In the following, we use the term ‘children with autism’. In the study from Kenny et al. (2016), professionals rather preferred the terminology ‘children with ASD’ but adults with autism the terms ‘person with autism’ and (even more) ‘autistic person’ when describing autism. ‘Children with autism’ is a good compromise including the preference of both, persons with autism and professionals.

2 We decided to focus on TV consumption as a form of screen time due to the fact that TV consumption was the most frequently mentioned screen time in the study.

Additional information

Funding

During the data collection Anja Stiller was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany as part of the subproject media protect (01EL1424E) of the research consortium health literacy in childhood and adolescence. No conditions whatsoever were imposed with the financing.