The Impact of Self-Reported Socio-Economic Factors on Parents’ Lives and their Social Adjustment in Civic Life: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Rawalpindi, Islamabad

Abstract

Parents' involvement in civic life plays a significant role in civic adjustment despite having a child with autism spectrum disorder. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a life-long Nero-developmental disorder in children having acute impairments in communication, social interaction, cognitive ability, insensitivity, and hypersensitivity, etc. autistic anomalies affect children’s everyday lives which create unbearable socio-economic challenges for parents in their civic lives. Little studies have comprehended the issue of parents’ social participation in the civic arena with self-reported socio-economic factors highlighted by parents’ parenting of ASD children in rehabilitation centers. The impacts of self-reported socio-economic factors in parents' lives for social adjustment were demarcated based on their age, gender age, marital status, employment status, and family nature of having children with ASD. Moreover, parents of children with ASD impairments face several socio-economic challenges in their everyday lives. They were susceptible to the acute obstacles due to the vulnerability of ASD fissures. Numerous self-trajectories were highlighted to illustrate the socio-economic impacts on parents' socio-cultural and economic adjustment in civic lives. The data were collected from 201 respondents with the cross-sectional survey. A quantitative research method was used in the study with a self-administered questionnaire as a tool for data collection. The data were collected directly from respondents having a child with ASD abnormalities, associated with rehabilitation centers after the recommendation of medical practitioners.