Discrimination of Family Environment among Parents of Children with Diabetes and Parents of Children with Autism

Kotrsotsiou, E., Dragioti, E., Kitta, M., Mpakou, E., Albani, E., Mantzoukas S. & Gouva, M.

Medical School -Postgraduate Program “Primary Care Health”, University of Thessaly – Greece

School of Health, Higher Technological Educational Institution of Epirus, Greece

Department of Nursing, Higher Technological Educational Institution of Larissa, Greece

  .Introduction

Living with a child with a chronic disease can affect family life in various domains.

To investigate the relationships of family systems in two different populations: parents of children with autism and parents of children with diabetes.

Objectives:

This cross-sectional study included 105 parents of autistic children (36 men – 69 women, mean 41 years, SD = 6,5) and 83 parents of children with diabetes (18 men – 65 women, age 41,0 years, SD = 7,0). The measuring tools used were: a) Family Environment Scale (FES). A discriminant analysis (DA) was performed. Predictor variables were age and environmental characteristics of families.

Materials and Methods

Significant mean differences were observed for all the predictors on the DA. While the log determinants were quite similar, Box’s M (202, 558) indicated that the assumption of equality of covariance matrices was violated (p=.000). However, given the large sample, this problem is not regarded as serious. The DA revealed a significant association between groups and all predictors, accounting for 72, 3% of between group variability. Closer analysis of the structure matrix found only three significant predictors, namely conflict (-.507), achievement orientation (.618) and active-recreational orientation (.418). The cross validated classification showed that overall 77, 0% were correctly classified.

Results

Structure Matrix

Function

1

Cohesion (FES) -.218

Expressiveness (FES) .119

Conflict (FES) -.507

Independence (FES) .187

Achievement Orientation (FES) .618

Intellectual-Cultural Orientation

(FES).256

Active-Recreational Orientation

(FES).418

Moral-Religious Emphasis (FES) .324

Organization (FES) -.244

Control (FES) -.316

Age .106

Sex .201

Educational status .265

Economic status .202Pooled within-groups correlations between discriminating variables and standardized canonical discriminant functions. Variables ordered by absolute size of correlation within function

Table 2: Structure matrix table

Holroyd J, McArthur D. (1976). Mental retardation and stress on the parents: Α contrast between Down’s syndrome and childhood autism. Am J Ment Retard, 80:431−436.Honey E, Hastings RP, McConachie H. (2005). Use of the questionnaire on resources and stress (QRS-F) with parents of young children with autism. Autism, 9:246-−255.Kersh J, Hedvat TT, Hauser-Cram P, Warfield ME. (2006). The contribution of marital quality to the well-being of parents of children with developmental disabilities. J Intellect Disabil Res, 50:883−893King GA, Zwaigenbaum L, King S, Baxter D, Rosenbaum P, Bates A. (2006). A qualitative investigation of changes in the belief systems of families of children with autism or Down syndrome. Child Care Health Dev, 32:353−369.

These findings indicate that these groups were not characterized by unique underlying factors and that may inform the development of a common family support system.

Conclusion

References

Table 1: Cronbach's a (alpha) coefficients of questionnaires’ internal consistency

Questionnaires Cronbach α

Family Environment Scale (FES) 0,827

Aim

To examine whether there is a meaningful differentiation on family functioning between families of diabetic and of autistic children.