1. Variable of interest: Caregiver Psychophysiological Well-being
Psychophysiological well-being for maternal caregivers of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be conceptualized as an aggregate of many interrelated factors including emotional health (e.g. low levels of perceived stress, caregiver burden, and parenting stress) and physical vitality (e.g. healthy blood pressure, positive health-related quality of life, and cortisol reactivity). Traditionally, in the context of ASD research, these outcomes have been associated with the child’s autism symptom severity with severe child behavior attributing to poor maternal health. Intensive implementation of educational interventions such as occupational therapy, speech therapy, social skills training, and applied behavior analysis (ABA) has shown to improve ASD functional impairments. However, differential parent access to these services has been associated with factors of race and socio-economic status. Little is known about the relationship between racially mediated lack of intervention services and the resultant effect on psychophysiological health among maternal caregivers of children with ASD.
2. The proposed investigation is a cross-sectional study designed to examine the influences of race and socio-economic status on access to autism intervention services and maternal caregiver health. Specific aims include:
(1) An examination of the association between access to autism intervention services and race and socio-economic status
(2) An evaluation of the predictive ability of race and socio-economic status on the mental and physical health of maternal caregivers
3. The results of the proposed study would provide insight on the inability to access important child services that might serve to intervene in poor child outcomes and consequentially affecting a positive change in the global health of maternal caregivers. Merely studying the problem is not enough. Solutions are required to address the barriers preventing equal access to ASD child services across all racial and socio-economic populations. Intervening at the place of child health might be a protective pathway for positive caregiver outcomes.