(PS8-A8) Correlates of Quality of Life in Parents of Autistic and Non-autistic Youth and the Protective Role of Child and Parent Service Utilization

     Research suggests lower quality of life (QOL) in parents of autistic children than those of non-autistic children (Vasilopoulou & Nisbet, 2016), and the Covid-19 (C-19) pandemic seems to have had a particularly deleterious impact on the QOL for parents of autistic and other neurodiverse children (Pecor et al., 2021). These findings emphasize the value of targeted treatments to improve QOL for both parents and children. We sought to examine how parent and child factors predict parental QOL in the late stages of the C-19 pandemic. The information gleaned from this analysis could be used to inform treatment decisions for children and their parents in order to improve QOL for parents of autistic and non-autistic youth.
     Forty-one parents (90.2% mothers) of autistic and non-autistic children and adolescents (41.5% autistic; Mage=10.27, SDage=3.05; 58.5% male; 39% non-White) completed a measure of quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF; Whoqol Group, 1998) during the late stages of the C-19 pandemic. The WHOQOL-BREF includes four domains of QOL: Physical Health, Psychological, Social Relationships, and Environment. Parents also provided information about their children’s service utilization, their own utilization and frequency of psychotherapy and psychotropic medication, as well as their own socioeconomic status (SES).
     Of the four WHOQOL domains, only the Environment domain was significantly related to variables of interest. Parents of autistic children reported lower QOL (M=71.88, SD=15.49) on this domain than parents of non-autistic children (M=79.58, SD=12.90), but this difference was not statistically significant (p=.09) and the whole sample was used for subsequent analyses. The Environment QOL domain was associated with SES (r=.31, p=.048) and how many distinct services a child receives (e.g., individual counseling, speech therapy, etc.; r=-.39, p=.01). Moderation analysis indicated that SES moderated the relationship between number of child services and parent QOL (B=-.95, p=.03), such that the relationship was only seen in high SES families (B=-4.16, p< .001). Multiple regression predicting parent treatment variables, while controlling for number of child services and SES, marginally predicted this domain of the WHOQOL (parental monthly psychotherapy: B=-.29, p=.051; parental use of psychotropic medications: B=-.26, p=.07).
     Our results suggest that the number of services children receive relates to parental QOL in the Environment domain. However, this effect was only seen among higher SES families, so future work should focus on the crucial task of identifying factors that can increase parental QOL in this domain for lower SES families. Given our findings that, when controlling for child service utilization and SES, parental psychotherapy and use of psychotropic medication approached significance as predictors of this domain of QOL in parents, parental involvement in therapy might be especially important for lower SES families. As such, it is imperative that greater emphasis is placed on increasing access to psychotherapy for parents, especially those with limited financial resources, so that their QOL is less negatively impacted by stressful situations like the C-19 pandemic.