Here's one of those studies that make you think, "Who paid for this?" and, more importantly, "Can they get their money back?"
As a mom on one of my Autism lists succinctly put it: Duh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
University of Washington
Abstract Title
STRESS IN PARENTS OF PRESCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN WITH AUTISM, DEVELOPMENTAL DELAY, AND TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT
List of Authors
A. Estes, G. Dawson, E. Koehler
Enter your abstract here
Background: Stress levels are generally higher for parents of children with autism compared with parents of typically developing children.
Objective: Identify specific child factors that relate to stress in parents of children with autism to assist in providing effective strategies for reducing stress in families.
Methods: Participants are from a longitudinal study on the neurobiology and development of children with autism (ASD), developmental delay (DD), and mental-age matched children with typical development (Typ). Children were evaluated for general cognitive ability using the Mullen Scales and for ASD using the ADI, ADOS, and DSM-IV. Language, adaptive behavior, behavior problems and social abilities were also assessed in children. Parents reported their own level of parenting stress, depression, and anxiety.
Results: Data are reported for 51 children with ASD, 20 with DD, and 27 Typ children (Mean ages; ASD = 43.9 months, DD = 44.2 months, Typ = 28.1 months). Parenting Stress in the ASD group was significantly higher than in the DD and Typ groups. Anxiety was higher in the ASD group than in the Typ group. Depression scores did not differ between groups. Analyses are planned to investigate the relationship between specific child factors and parenting stress in this sample.
Conclusions: Preliminary findings indicate elevated stress levels in parents of children with ASD compared with parents of children with DD and typically developing children. Results of analyses aimed at identifying the specific factors, including child factors, that play a role in increasing parenting stress will be presented.
Funding source: NICHD (U19 HD34565) and NIMH (U54MH066399)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After processing the information for a few minutes, I went from finding this laughable to getting angry about it. Like the asinine study that tries to link autism to TV watching, this study is foolish. But the foolish part of this study is that it states the obvious. Parents of children with autism are stressed out. This could be determined by using common sense. Why in the world would you need a study to determine this? Here's an idea, instead of wasting valuable research time and money on studies like this, why don't you spend it figuring out how to help treat kids with autism? That would definitely help with the parents' stress levels.
But, wait, I guess you can't do that if you don't know the parents are stressed; this must be a preliminary study, so they can go ahead and find a cure for Autism, now that they know it's making us poor parents stressed out. Yes, that last line should be read with as much sarcasm as possible.
I know my stress levels when Hutton was in preschool were much higher than they are now, as I scrambled around, trying to put the pieces together to figure out insurance coverage; then find a good doctor, find a better doctor, no, find any doctor who can offer ANY help at all; then find a speech therapist, and find another speech therapist when the first one doesn't want to work around our schedule at all; then figure out the whole ABA thing, get on a year+ long wait list at a good place, find a decent place to give us ABA in the mean time, find a home therapist; figure out which of the bazillion supplements and dietary changes we need. You know what, I'm STILL stressed, and STILL working on most of the above issues, plus the new issue of kindergarten. At least now, though, I have support from other autism parents. Isn't it funny that of all the resources out there that cost so much money, fellow parents are still the best resource and support, and they're free? The UW should do another "duh" study on this: Having support from people in similar situations can help lower stress levels.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Extra, Extra! I'm Stressed!
Posted by Laura at 10:05 AM
Labels: Autism, Stress, Worthless Studies
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
If you hadn't posted parts of this study I never would have never believed it!! Next thing they will tell us is that "Children who eat asbestos, run a higher risk of developing cancer than those who dont!!"
Ah science... it's amazing the millions of dollars in grant money that are wasted on shit like this, while IMPORTANT research goes down the toilet. I've seen studies done on the flow-rate of different brands of ketchup.
Brilliant!
Yeah, and it's annoying because this is the place where Hutton was diagnosed and where he's finally getting good ABA therapy. But I just think of what they could be doing with this grant money that would help a lot more kids than figuring out about stressed parents. I mean, ALL parents are stressed at one time or another.
Now, I better go read up on that ketchup report! Taste is one thing, but how does the ketchup flow?
Matt-Man- Do you really think asbestos is bad? I was looking at some neat asbestos toothpaste for the kids, but if it's bad for them, I guess I could find something else...The rat poison has a good scouring effect, I've found.
Why aren't WE getting paid to do these studies? After all, we're living it! How about saying that kids with disabilities are more likely to be picked on, beaten up at school, abused by others and thought to be mentally retarded.
All that study says is that someone who has no clue about autism finally got a glimmer of what we are all going through.
Double "duh" or in my case, triple "duh" I suppose. A few years back TIME ran results of a study that showed that the telomeres (tips of the chromosomes) in mothers of children with autism were on average a decade "older" than the woman's chronoligical age. I use this in my MS where the mother to the autistic kids says "Great, even my chromosomes are aging at the speed of light." I'm going to start using dog years and just be done with it.
KS
Mom to 3 autie daughters
By the way, I see these were NIH dollars? You can see why the autism community is at sixes and sevens over the Combatting Autism Act which will spend billions on research like THIS and ZERO on actually helping families or finally looking at whether our ambitious vaccination schedule (38 vaccines before age 6) is wreaking havoc on young immune systems.
This superfluous and useless research is the equivalent of a condescending pat on the head, like the Elmo theory and the older Dad theory. Doesn't do SQUAT for the tens of thousands of kids marching toward aging OUT of the school and into the community with no assistance.
KS
OMG this is unbelieveable. I thought I was reading fiction. Dawson has struck again.
I would like to be paid to run a study that sleeping in causes you to be less tired. Do you think I can get funding for that?
Arwen - Definitely check with NIH! They'll fund anything (well, as long as it's not helpful!). If you can figure out a way to involve a shout out to the pharmaceutical industry, even better!
Post a Comment