A Qualitative Study on Impacts of the Presence of ASD on Families of the Autistic Children and the Support Systems in Yeka Sub-city of Addis Ababa
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Date
2020-12
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Addis ababa university
Abstract
This qualitative study was concerned with exploring the effects of the presence of ASD children on the lives of the families of the autistic children who resided in Yeka Sub City of Addis Ababa, with a specific focus on woreda five, six, and seven. Together with this, the study examined the availability of family support systems for these families. The study deployed an exploratory data collection approach to learn the families’ lived experiences through the study participants’ understanding of the realities, and to answer the research questions: “what impacts does the presence of ASD children have on the lives of their families resided in woreda five, six, and seven of Yeka Sub-City, and what family interventions are available to these families’ to address the families’ life problems and restore family stability?” One male and seven female participants were participated in the data collection. In-depth in-person interview was conducted at participants’ places to explore the families’ life situation, and interview has been audio-taped. A supplementary questionnaire has been administered to the same participants in order to obtain the ASD children’s demographic data and examine availability of early intervention services. Snowball or chain referral sampling technique was used, because the population of interest was uncommon and the size of the population was too small to meet the sampling criteria. The target population was caregivers of the ASD children with diverse sociodemographic backgrounds; because they were appropriate to explain the phenomena from different perspective and provide detailed information. The data analysis involved: transcribing audio data, coding data, categorizing codes, developing themes, and presenting the findings using MS-Word and Excel applications. The study identified five major issues: 1) diagnosis and basic therapy services that the parents received to their ASD Children, (2) impacts of raising an ASD Child on the Family, (3) the influencing factors that contributed to the parents’ stressful situation, (4) parents’ inability to cope with the stressors, and (5) unavailability of family support systems.
Key words: ASD, disability, family, children, parent/caregiver, impacts, effects, lived-experience, crisis, stressors, support system, participants, researcher, qualitative research, data, design, methods, themes, findings
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A Qualitative Study on Impacts of the Presence of ASD on Families of the Autistic Children and the Support Systems in Yeka Sub-city of Addis Ababa