Assessing the Needs of Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Behavior Problems: Association With Parents' Sense of Coherence

The aim of the present study was to assess the needs of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have behavior problems. Participants, 104 parents raising children with autism spectrum disorder, completed the Japanese version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and were divided into groups based on their responses and on their children’s level of intellectual disability. The families’ needs were measured using the Japanese version of the Family Needs Survey (FNS). The results of nonparametric tests indicated that the parents of children with autism spectrum disorder who had a high level of behavior problems had higher scores in all domains of the Family Needs Survey. The parents of children with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disabilities who engaged in a high level of behavior problems had higher scores on the Family Needs Survey domain of “explaining to others”, compared to the parents of children with autism spectrum disorder who had a low level of behavior problems; that was correlated with the Family Needs Survey domains of “family and social support”. The parents were also divided into groups based on their responses to the Japanese version of the Child Behavior Checklist and the 29-item Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-29). The results of nonparametric tests of those data indicated that the parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and a high level of behavior problems who had lower scores on “comprehensibility” had higher scores on the Family Needs Survey domains of “information” and “explaining to others”. The parents’ comprehensibility scores on the Sense of Coherence Scale were signifıcantly correlated with their scores on the Family Needs Survey domains of “information” and “explaining to others”, and to their total problem scores on the Child Behavior Checklist. These results confırm the importance of helping parents shape their knowledge about behavior problems, and of facilitating parents’ self-monitoring of their daily situation, in relation to stress reported by parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and a high level of behavior problems who have a lower level of comprehensibility.