Parental Perception of Quality of Life for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Our purpose for this study was to investigate how parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) rate their child’s quality of life (QOL). We began by developing a parent proxy-report QOL assessment instrument with subscales and then distributed it statewide to parents of children with ASD. The scale demonstrated strong internal consistency with a full-scale Cronbach’s alpha of .835. Our results indicated that 0% of the parents rated their child as having a poor QOL, 66% rated their child as having a good QOL, and 16% rated their child as having an excellent QOL. Our results support the notion that QOL can be assessed in early childhood to develop and ensure effective programing across the lifespan for an individual with ASD.