Department of Psychiatry, Gauhati Medical College Hospital, Guwahati, Assam, India.
Astitva, Guwahati, Assam, India.
Asian J Psychiatr. 2017 Aug;28:133-139. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2017.03.040. Epub 2017 Mar 30.
Children with autism (CWA) is a segment of population in North East India who are marginalized due to lack of resources like skilled manpower and perceived stress. In comparison to other states and countries whether these children are unique in terms of care and rehabilitation from adult caregivers was the focus of our study. The study assessed level of parental stress, social support, coping mechanisms used by family and resilience in meeting the challenges as caregivers. Parents were selected by simple random sampling from a multi-specialty center dedicated to CWA. They were assessed with the help of structured tools like the Parental Stress Scale, the social support appraisals scale, the coping self-efficacy scale, and the Family Resilience Assessment Scale. Results were analyzed with descriptive statistics and findings suggest definite stress among the parents of CWA. Personal time constraint was noticed in majority of parents, which had adversely affected their professional lives. Despite wide array of stress factors, family members had satisfactory coping skills to work in harmony in adverse circumstances. Regarding secondary social support in terms of family, friends, and neighbors, responses were mixed; religious and spirituality were often resorted avenues. Social desirability, fatigue and the sample being restricted to only one center were though the limitations but, this study throws light on pertinent issues related to families with CWA from a region where specialty centers are a rarity. The future implication could focus on CWA's future, rehabilitation, care and parental concerns which are grossly neglected in North East India.
印度东北部的自闭症儿童（CWA）由于缺乏熟练人力和感知压力等资源而处于边缘地位。与其他州和国家相比，这些儿童在成人照顾者的护理和康复方面是否具有独特性是我们研究的重点。该研究评估了父母的压力水平、家庭使用的社会支持、应对机制和应对挑战的适应能力。父母通过简单随机抽样从一个专门为 CWA 服务的多专业中心中选出。他们使用结构化工具进行评估，如父母压力量表、社会支持评估量表、应对自我效能量表和家庭适应能力评估量表。结果采用描述性统计进行分析，结果表明 CWA 父母确实存在压力。大多数父母都注意到个人时间的限制，这对他们的职业生涯产生了不利影响。尽管存在广泛的压力因素，但家庭成员有令人满意的应对技能，可以在不利的情况下和谐相处。至于家庭、朋友和邻居的二级社会支持，反应不一；宗教和精神信仰经常是人们求助的途径。社会期望、疲劳以及样本仅限于一个中心是研究的局限性，但这项研究揭示了一个特殊地区的 CWA 家庭相关的重要问题，该地区的专业中心很少。未来的研究重点可能是 CWA 的未来、康复、护理以及在印度东北部被严重忽视的父母关注问题。
