The Importance of Relationship Satisfaction and Raising a Child with ASD
The Importance of Relationship Satisfaction and Raising a Child with ASD
Date
2021-12
Authors
Sinnott, Marlee
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Journal ISSN
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Abstract
Couples raising a child with Autism are impacted by greater amounts of stress and lower quality of life than parents who do not have a child diagnosed with Autism. In addition, this reduced quality of life can also interfere with the couple's relationship satisfaction and ability to engage in a healthy and meaningful relationship with their partner. The aim of this capstone was to develop a group program that could be used by clinicians to work with parents who are raising a child with Autism. By attending to the practical and emotional needs of the couple, clinicians can improve overall family functioning longer term for families raising a child with Autism in addition to also improving the quality of life for each individual in the family. A couple's intervention program that incorporates various coping strategies, partner intimacy skills and therapies such as Narrative Therapy, EFT-C and SFBCT is proposed as a way to improve relationship satisfaction in couples raising a child with Autism so that overall family functioning for the parents and child can be accomplished.
Description
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, parental stress, marital satisfaction, intimacy, dyadic coping, supported dyadic coping, delegated dyadic coping, common dyadic coping, family therapy, narrative therapy, emotion-focused therapy, solution-focused brief therapy
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States, openAccess