Journal Article

Explaining and Selecting Treatments for Autism: Parental Explanatory Models in Taiwan

Tsai, Jia-Ling, Shyu, Yea-Ing Lotus, Tsai, Wen-Che

2010

Overview

Parental explanatory models about autism influence the type of therapy a child receives, the child’s well-being, and the parents’ own psychological adaptation. This qualitative study explored explanatory models used by parents of children with autism. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 parents of children with autism from a medical center in Taiwan. Despite high educational background, most of these parents attributed their child’s autism to both biomedical and supernatural etiologies without apparent conflicts. These parents chose a wide variety of treatment strategies, including biomedical and alternative treatments, which often created time/energy pressures and financial burden, and were influenced by parents’ cause attribution. Parents’ illness explanations influence their treatment selections and need to be understood and accepted by health care providers.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Adaptation / Adjustment (to Environment) / Adult / Aetiology / Alternative approaches / Analysis / Attribution / Autism / Autism Spectrum Disorders / Autistic children / Autistic Disorder - diagnosis / Autistic Disorder - epidemiology / Autistic Disorder - etiology / Autistic Disorder - therapy / Behavior Patterns / Behavioral Science and Psychology / Beliefs / Biological and medical sciences / Biology / Biomedicine / Causality / Child / Child and School Psychology / Child Rearing / Child Welfare / Child, Preschool / Children / Combined Modality Therapy / Complementary Therapies - methods / Cultural Context / Drug therapy / Educational Attainment / Educational Background / Etiology / Family (Sociological Unit) / Family environment. Family history / Female / Foreign Countries / Grounded Theory / Health aspects / Health care / Health care industry / Health Services / Health Services Needs and Demand - economics / Health Surveys / Help Seeking / Humans / Hyperactivity / Junior High Schools / Male / Medical personnel / Medical sciences / Medical treatment / Mental Disorders / Mental Health Programs / Mental health services / Minority Group Children / Networks / Neurosciences / Original Paper / Parent-child relations / Parents / Parents & parenting / Parents - psychology / Pediatrics / Psychological Patterns / Psychology / Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry / Psychopathology. Psychiatry / Public Health / Qualitative Research / Schizophrenia / Semantics / Semiotics / Social Problems / Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry / Stress Variables / Supernatural / Surveys and Questionnaires / Taiwan / Taiwan - epidemiology / Therapy / Treatment methods / Treatment needs / Well Being / Wellbeing / Youth