| The intent of this study was to better understand how raising a child on the Autism Spectrum influences a marital relationship. A quantitative study was conducted in order to gather data to answer the following questions: Do men and women differ in overall marriage quality when raising a child on the Autism Spectrum? Do increased levels of severity on the Autism Spectrum negatively correlate with levels of marital satisfaction? This study recruited 51 parents of children with Autism, ages 0 to 17-years-old, throughout Southern California. Participants were currently married, divorced, or separated. Each parent counted as an individual participant for the study. The severity of the child's diagnosis was assessed in this study by having the parents scale their child's level of functioning on a low, medium, high scale based on severity of ASD as described in the DSM-V manual. The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS), Quality of Marriage Index (QMI) and a demographic survey were given to each participant. Results found women, when compared to men, reported a more significant negative perception of marriage quality when raising a child together on the Autism Spectrum. Contrary to expectations, a positive correlation of functioning on the ASD spectrum and level of martial satisfaction was found. The results did not support the hypothesis that parent's raising a child with a more severe level of functioning on the Autism Spectrum would report lower levels of marital satisfaction. The results of this study demonstrated that although raising a child with a developmental disability can be extremely overwhelming and stressful, couples have the ability to overcome challenges associated with the disorder. |
