Parenting Emerging Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Open Access
- Author:
- Tarafas, Annelise Jo
- Area of Honors:
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Kathryn D R Drager, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Carol Anne Miller, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Problem Solving
Emerging Adults
Parenting
Parenting Emerging Adults
Communication - Abstract:
- Little research and literature regarding the relationships of emerging adults with autism and their parent(s) is available. It is critical to demystify the relationships of parents with adult children with ASD, and what their communication on a daily basis looks like. In a planned study, participants will be recruited through social media organizations or service providers. Once participants consent to partake in the study, investigators will provide a demographic survey that will be completed by each participant. Upon completion of the demographic questionnaires, using ecological momentary interventions/assessments, or daily diaries, the study will survey a minimum of 20 parents (maximum of 60) regarding the daily interactions with their adult child with ASD. For the duration of 14 days, the participants will receive and email or text each morning to complete the electronic survey, at the place and time of their convenience, concerning the interaction(s) they had with their child that day. Each survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes or less each and will be asked two or three times throughout the study to complete an interview with principal investigators (PI) over the phone or on Skype/Google Hangout. The current study will present pilot data collected to test the electronic surveys on Qualtrics, a research software, as well as to test the data collection process and the method by which the data should be gathered. One individual, a middle-aged woman, was requested to complete daily diaries over the course of three days. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the methodology to provide critical feedback prior to initiating the full study.