Clinical trial NCT01435733: Parenting a Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Marital Status
Official title: Parenting a Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Marital Status
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: SUSPENDED
Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder
Keywords: ASD
Divorce
Lead sponsor: Sheba Medical Center
Sponsor class: OTHER_GOV
First posted: 2011-09-19
Enrollment: 200
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: CASE_ONLY
Time perspective: RETROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Couples who have children with ASD will be recruited to participate in this study from the Weinberg Child Development Center in the Edmond and LilySafra Children'shospital, ShebaMedical Center, Ramat-Gan, Israel. Parents will be contacted through the telephone and provided with a brief explanation about the study. Participation will be voluntary with no monetary compensation. Parents who volunteer to participate will then be presented with a short telephone survey, asking them about their marital status and other variables related to the link between parenting an ASD child and their marital status.

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the presence of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder places parents at increased risk for divorce.

Detailed description: Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are lifelong neurodevelopmental disorders involving a triad of impairments in communication and social reciprocity and increases in repetitive/restricted interests and behaviors. ASD includes: autistic disorder, Asperger's syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), Rett's syndrome, and childhood disintegrative disorder as pervasive developmental disorders (American Psychiatric Association \[DSM-IV-TR\], 2000).

Few disabilities appear to be more taxing on parents than ASDs.Parents of children with ASD fare worse on a variety of measures of well-being than parents of children without disabilities as well as parents of children with other types of disabilities.

Studies investigating the impact of a child with disabilities, specifically ASD, are inconclusive. However, parents of children with ASD may be at increased risk for divorce due to a variety of personal and disability related factors. In Israel the relationship of having a child with autism on the probability of divorce has not been tested yet. The aim of this study is to profile this relationship and determine the magnitude and directionality of the effect raising ASD children has on the resilience of the institution of marriage and the satisfaction both partners derive. This will be tested using a short telephone survey.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* parents to a child with ASD

Exclusion Criteria:

* none

Primary outcomes:
measure: lower or higher levels of divorce
timeFrame: not relevant (phone survey)
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Ramat Gan
country: Israel
facility: Weinberg Child Development Center, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer
Study officials:
affiliation: Sheba Medical Center
name: Lidia Gabis, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: Tel Aviv-Yafo Academic College
name: Gilad Gal, Ph.D
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: Sheba Medical Center
name: Klara Zislin, BA
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References: