Quality of Life in Autistic Children: Discrepancies between Self- and Caregiver Reports and Associations with Individual Characteristics
Year: 2025
Type: data-paper
Abstract: Quality of life (QoL) is important for everyone and has been identified as a priority for autistic people. However, studies typically focus on caregiver-reported QoL and its related individual characteristics, even though self- and caregiver-reported QoL may differ in autistic children. In 74 autistic children (5.04-10.99 years-old, IQ 47-141), we sought to determine the level of agreement between self- and caregiver-reported QoL and determine if self- and caregiver-reported QoL are differently related to personal characteristics such as age, IQ, autism features, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) features, sleep difficulties, and sensory features. Findings suggested poor inter-rater agreement (ICC = .16) between self- and caregiver-reported QoL. Across both self- and caregiver reports, sensory features and sleep difficulties related to QoL, but age and IQ did not. We also found an interaction effect of reporter on the relation between autism features, ADHD features, and QoL, with the associations between QoL and both autism and ADHD features driven by caregiver-reported QoL. These findings emphasize the importance of measuring both self- and caregiver-reported QoL to provide complementary perspectives. Moreover, these results underscore the importance of understanding a child?s sensory features and sleep difficulties, as these two areas were similarly related to both self-and caregiver-reported QoL.
DOI: 10.15154/z96a-j590
Authors: Travers, Brittany, Travers, Brittany
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6942728470
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: