Department of Special and Gifted Education, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Department of Communication Disorders and Deaf Education, Fontbonne University, Minneapolis, Minnesota , United States.
BMC Psychol. 2024 May 7;12(1):253. doi: 10.1186/s40359-024-01717-6.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong neurological condition which results in social skill deficits, communication difficulties, and restrictive and repetitive behaviour. The difficulties associated with parenting children with ASD have been studied extensively, mainly from the perspectives of mothers. The extent of involvement of fathers in the raising of children with ASD has received limited scholarly attention, especially in non-Western contexts such as the United Arab Emirates.
This study asked mothers to evaluate the involvement of fathers in the development of children with ASD.
In all, 240 mothers completed the Fathers' Involvement in Development and Rehabilitation Scale, designed based on a review of literature on the construct of involvement, namely attitude, participation in training, and support domains. The data were subjected to computation of mean scores, multivariate analysis of variance, hierarchical regression, and moderation analyses.
The results suggested that fathers held positive attitudes and provided substantial support to their children with ASD. However, mothers were ambivalent regarding the participation of fathers in training to support the development of their children. Differences were also observed between participants according to marital status, location, child gender, and ASD severity.
Recommendations for targeted training for fathers and other study implications are discussed.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种终身的神经发育障碍，导致社交技能缺陷、沟通困难以及限制和重复行为。父母养育 ASD 儿童的困难已被广泛研究，主要从母亲的角度进行研究。父亲在养育 ASD 儿童方面的参与程度受到的学术关注有限，尤其是在阿拉伯联合酋长国等非西方环境中。
本研究要求母亲评估父亲在 ASD 儿童发展中的参与程度。
共有 240 名母亲完成了《父亲参与发展和康复量表》，该量表是基于对参与结构的文献综述设计的，包括态度、参与培训和支持领域。对数据进行了均值计算、多元方差分析、分层回归和调节分析。
结果表明，父亲对他们的 ASD 儿童持有积极的态度，并提供了大量的支持。然而，母亲对父亲参与培训以支持孩子发展的态度存在矛盾。参与者之间还存在婚姻状况、地点、孩子性别和 ASD 严重程度的差异。
讨论了针对父亲的有针对性培训的建议和其他研究意义。
