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Parental Risk Literacy is Related to Quality of Life in Spanish Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

Families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience much more negative perceptions of their family quality of life (FQoL). To investigate key factors that may shape these experiences, we conducted a case–control study of sixty-one Spanish families (29 with a child with ASD) using a broad psychosocial assessment (e.g., ASD severity, social support, demographics), including the first direct test of the relationship between FQoL and parental risk literacy (i.e., the ability to evaluate and understand risk, as measured by numeracy). Results revealed that numeracy was associated with differences in perceived FQoL among families of children with ASD (R2 = .10), a finding that held across several models statistically controlling for the influence of other variables. Findings suggest that parental risk literacy skills may generally be associated with differences in decision making vulnerabilities (e.g., risk evaluation and interpretation) that influence family outcomes including FQoL.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support for this research was provided by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) (PSI2014-51842-R), the National Science Foundation (USA) (SES−1253263), and a grant from the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (Spain) (FPU14/00723). Dr. Dafina Petrova is supported by a Sara Borrell fellowship from the Health Institute Carlos III (Expde: CD19/00203). All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Campus Universitario de Cartuja, Granada, Spain

    Dunia Garrido, Gloria Carballo & Rocio Garcia-Retamero

  2. Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública, Granada, Spain

    Dafina Petrova

  3. Cancer Epidemiology Group, Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria Ibs.GRANADA, Granada, Spain

    Dafina Petrova

  4. CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain

    Dafina Petrova

  5. University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Edward Cokely

  6. Harding Center for Risk Literacy, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

    Edward Cokely & Rocio Garcia-Retamero

Authors
  1. Dunia Garrido
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  2. Dafina Petrova
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  4. Gloria Carballo
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  5. Rocio Garcia-Retamero
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Contributions

DG, GC, and RG-R conceived the study and prepared the study materials. DG collected the data. DG and DP managed the data and conducted the analyses. DG and DP wrote the first draft of the manuscript with input from all authors. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results, provided critical revisions of the first draft, and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dunia Garrido.

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The authors declare independence from this funding agency and do not have conflicts of interest including financial interests, activities, relationships, and affiliations.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (include name of committee + reference number) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual adult participants included in the study; assent was obtained from children.

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Garrido, D., Petrova, D., Cokely, E. et al. Parental Risk Literacy is Related to Quality of Life in Spanish Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 2475–2484 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04733-8

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