A study of quality of life and burden of care in mothers of children with intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder

Page: 482-484
Mini Mehra and Bhupinder Singh (Department of Psychology, Barkatullah University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh)
Indrabhushan Kumar (Department of Clinical Psychology, CRC, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh)

Care giving is a normal part of parenting. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual disabilities have some limitations in functioning which require a long term care that exceeds the usual needs of children as they grow older. They demand some high quality of care due to their functional limitations. The high level of care required by these children can be burdensome and may impact the physical and mental health of the care givers. The study conducted on a sample of 50 mothers (25 mothers in each groups, ASD & ID). The result obtained indicates impairment in all the four domains of Quality of Life of mothers of children with ASD. The level of impairment reported in ASD group was found significantly higher than that of ID group on the basis of data interpreted by t-test. Finding also shows higher level of burden of care among the mothers of children with ASD as compared to the mothers of children with ID. These mothers display an elevated level of burden and impaired quality of life. So there is a need of awareness and support to assist this group.