Experience of Autistic Children and Their Families During the Pandemic: From Distress to Coping Strategies

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Abstract

To understand the perspectives and needs of autistic children and their families in the context of an emergency, 109 parents and 56 autistic children (5.75–18 years) from Canada completed an online survey about needs, barriers and facilitators to coping with the pandemic. Parents’ concerns about their child’s development and difficulties managing their child’s behaviors before and during pandemic were significantly associated. Parents identified maintaining social relationships and implementing appropriate interventions to their child’s characteristics as facilitators during the pandemic. Both children and parents identified lack of socialization as a main difficulty. Among children, 92.9% associated electronic devices with their well-being. This study highlighted the need to consider the child’s autistic characteristics and interests to implement emergency accommodations and services.

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The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10803-021-05233-z.

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Challenges and burden of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for child and adolescent mental health: a narrative review to highlight clinical and research needs in the acute phase and the long return to normality

Jörg Fegert, Benedetto Vitiello, Paul L. Plener … (2020)

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is profoundly affecting life around the globe. Isolation, contact restrictions and economic shutdown impose a complete change to the psychosocial environment in affected countries. These measures have the potential to threaten the mental health of children and adolescents significantly. Even though the current crisis can bring with it opportunities for personal growth and family cohesion, disadvantages may outweigh these benefits. Anxiety, lack of peer contact and reduced opportunities for stress regulation are main concerns. Another main threat is an increased risk for parental mental illness, domestic violence and child maltreatment. Especially for children and adolescents with special needs or disadvantages, such as disabilities, trauma experiences, already existing mental health problems, migrant background and low socioeconomic status, this may be a particularly challenging time. To maintain regular and emergency child and adolescent psychiatric treatment during the pandemic is a major challenge but is necessary for limiting long-term consequences for the mental health of children and adolescents. Urgent research questions comprise understanding the mental health effects of social distancing and economic pressure, identifying risk and resilience factors, and preventing long-term consequences, including—but not restricted to—child maltreatment. The efficacy of telepsychiatry is another highly relevant issue is to evaluate the efficacy of telehealth and perfect its applications to child and adolescent psychiatry. Conclusion There are numerous mental health threats associated with the current pandemic and subsequent restrictions. Child and adolescent psychiatrists must ensure continuity of care during all phases of the pandemic. COVID-19-associated mental health risks will disproportionately hit children and adolescents who are already disadvantaged and marginalized. Research is needed to assess the implications of policies enacted to contain the pandemic on mental health of children and adolescents, and to estimate the risk/benefit ratio of measures such as home schooling, in order to be better prepared for future developments.

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Psychiatric disorders in children with autism spectrum disorders: prevalence, comorbidity, and associated factors in a population-derived sample.

Emily Simonoff, Andrew Pickles, Tony Charman … (2008)

Autism spectrum disorders are now recognized to occur in up to 1% of the population and to be a major public health concern because of their early onset, lifelong persistence, and high levels of associated impairment. Little is known about the associated psychiatric disorders that may contribute to impairment. We identify the rates and type of psychiatric comorbidity associated with ASDs and explore the associations with variables identified as risk factors for child psychiatric disorders. A subgroup of 112 ten- to 14-year old children from a population-derived cohort was assessed for other child psychiatric disorders (3 months' prevalence) through parent interview using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment. DSM-IV diagnoses for childhood anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, oppositional defiant and conduct disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, tic disorders, trichotillomania, enuresis, and encopresis were identified. Seventy percent of participants had at least one comorbid disorder and 41% had two or more. The most common diagnoses were social anxiety disorder (29.2%, 95% confidence interval [CI)] 13.2-45.1), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (28.2%, 95% CI 13.3-43.0), and oppositional defiant disorder (28.1%, 95% CI 13.9-42.2). Of those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, 84% received a second comorbid diagnosis. There were few associations between putative risk factors and psychiatric disorder. Psychiatric disorders are common and frequently multiple in children with autism spectrum disorders. They may provide targets for intervention and should be routinely evaluated in the clinical assessment of this group.

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Intercoder Reliability in Qualitative Research: Debates and Practical Guidelines

Cliodhna O’Connor, Helene Joffe (2020)

Evaluating the intercoder reliability (ICR) of a coding frame is frequently recommended as good practice in qualitative analysis. ICR is a somewhat controversial topic in the qualitative research community, with some arguing that it is an inappropriate or unnecessary step within the goals of qualitative analysis. Yet ICR assessment can yield numerous benefits for qualitative studies, which include improving the systematicity, communicability, and transparency of the coding process; promoting reflexivity and dialogue within research teams; and helping convince diverse audiences of the trustworthiness of the analysis. Few guidelines exist to help researchers negotiate the assessment of ICR in qualitative analysis. The current article explains what ICR is, reviews common arguments for and against its incorporation in qualitative analysis and offers guidance on the practical elements of performing an ICR assessment.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Claudine Jacques:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6987-189X

claudine.jacques@uqo.ca

Geneviève Saulnier: genevievesaulnier@ssss.gouv.qc.ca

Agnès Éthier: etha06@uqo.ca

Isabelle Soulières: isoulieres@gmail.com

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Autism Dev Disord

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Autism Dev Disord

Title: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Publisher: Springer US (New York )

ISSN (Print): 0162-3257

ISSN (Electronic): 1573-3432

Publication date (Electronic): 27 August 2021

Publication date PMC-release: 27 August 2021

Pages: 1-13

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.265705.3, ISNI 0000 0001 2112 1125, Present Address: Department of Psychoeducation and Psychology, , Université du Québec en Outaouais, ; 283 Alexandre Taché Blvd, Poste 2272, Postbox 1250, Gatineau, QC J8X 3X7 Canada

[2 ]Centre intégré de sante et des services sociaux de l’Outaouais, Gatineau, QC Canada

[3 ]GRID grid.38678.32, ISNI 0000 0001 2181 0211, Department of Psychology, , Université du Québec à Montréal, ; Montreal, QC Canada

[4 ]GRID grid.459278.5, ISNI 0000 0004 4910 4652, CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, , Hôpital en sante mentale Rivière-des-Prairies, ; local SU-1335, 100, rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal, QC H2X 3P2 Canada

[5 ]Present Address: Hôpital Pierre-Janet - Pavillon Juvénile, 20, rue Pharand, bureau 1106, Gatineau, QC J9A 1K7 Canada

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Claudine Jacques http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6987-189X

Article

Publisher ID: 5233

DOI: 10.1007/s10803-021-05233-z

PMC ID: 8391854

PubMed ID: 34448994

SO-VID: c7d30b73-0da5-4d14-be93-40aab57e52ba

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Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Experience of Autistic Children and Their Families During the Pandemic: From Distress to Coping Strategies

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Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

Most cited references 56

Challenges and burden of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for child and adolescent mental health: a narrative review to highlight clinical and research needs in the acute phase and the long return to normality

Psychiatric disorders in children with autism spectrum disorders: prevalence, comorbidity, and associated factors in a population-derived sample.

Intercoder Reliability in Qualitative Research: Debates and Practical Guidelines

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