The purpose of the study is to explore parents’ future plans for their children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in the areas of self-assessed parental emotional status, children’s independent living, and the families’ (including the parents and the children) social service needs. In this study, comparisons will be made between Asian Immigrant parents and American-Born parents in the dimensions of: 1) parents’ current future plans for their children with ASD; 2) parent’s expectations on available social services; and 3) parent’s self-assessment of their issue-handling capabilities to plan for their children’s future.
This is an exploratory study, which utilizes a self-designed questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire consists of both close-ended and open-ended questions. The primary questions addressed are the statuses of the parents’ current plans for their children’s future, self-assessed parental emotional status, and issue-handling capabilities in terms of the planning process, parents’ expectations on their children with ASD, and parents’ expectations on services and supports. This study employs a non-probability sampling method, or in other words a convenient sampling design.
Quantitative analyses done on the results reveal that: 1) parents have high expectations on their children with ASD; 2) parents show high levels of worrying and stress regarding the future plans of their children with ASD; 3) parents expect the availability of services that help them with future planning for their children with ASD, however there is a lack of such services as well as relevant peer support - in addition, parents are dissatisfied with the current services that they receive; 4) while gender and race do not influence the self-assessed parental emotional status, the parents’ ages are significantly related to their satisfactions of their relationships with their children with ASD; 5) the parents’ education levels influences their stress levels as well as their expectations on their children’s potential friendships in the future; 6) the parent’s levels of satisfaction with the services that they currently receive influence their confidence regarding of their abilities to plan for a successful future for their children; and lastly, 7) Asian immigrant parents show themselves as having lower issue-handling capabilities than American-born parents.
The following recommendations in response to the findings of this study:
1. It is important to build networks and social support systems for parents of children with ASD, which can help the parents with coping with issues related to their children’s disabilities.
2. Asian immigrant parents of children with ASD need more attention and assistance regarding difficulties related to cultural adaptation.
3. Effective programs and social policies are tremendously helpful for parents with planning for their children’s future.
4. Studies to fully address Asian immigrant parents of children with ASD regarding emotional status, social and service needs, services receiving status, and difficulties when planning for the children’s future are extremely needed.