Study details autism’s heavy toll beyond childhood on marriages

The parents of grown children with autism are more likely to divorce than couples with typically developing children, according to new data from a large longitudinal study of families of adolescents and adults with autism. "Few developmental disabilities appear to be more taxing on parents and there is a great need for support services for families when the child is an adolescent and adult." Sigan Hartley, assistant professor of human development and family studies The study, published in the August issue of the Journal of Family Psychology by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Waisman Center , paints a new picture of the prospects of long-term marital success for parents raising a child with autism. The study is the first to track marital history of parents of adult children with autism. It reveals that, in contrast to previous assumptions, parents do not have a greater risk of divorce when their son or daughter with autism is young. However, as the child with autism grows into adolescence and adulthood, parents are more likely to divorce than are parents of typically developing children. Although findings reveal diminished prospects for a lasting marriage for parents raising a child with autism, the majority of marriages in this study survived. The study compared the marital fates of 391 couples — the parents of adolescent and adult children with autism — to a sample drawn from another large longitudinal study, the National Survey of Midlife in the United States ( - ).