By Carol Church, Writer, Family Album
Reviewed by Heidi Radunovich, PhD, Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, University of Florida
This post is in honor of Autism Awareness Month.
Juggling the demands of caring for children while also maintaining a career can be very tricky. When you add in the extra responsibilities of raising a child with special needs, things get even more complicated. What’s it like for parents who work while also parenting these unique kids? A 2010 study of over 300 parents sought to learn more by surveying parents about one such experience: working while also parenting a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Schedule and Hour Changes
The results of the study showed a clear effect on parents’ working lives—especially women’s. About half of parents said they now worked fewer hours as a result of their child’s disorder. Close to 40% had changed their working hours. Many had taken a leave of absence or turned down a promotion. And the majority of parents said that the wife’s work outside the home had been more affected than the husband’s.
Employers Not Always Sympathetic
As parents of children with special needs know, appointments with doctors and therapists, meetings with school staff, and other related interruptions can require a lot of parental time and energy. Employers may be quick to discipline and slow to accommodate parents who must rearrange their schedules or take unplanned leave. Unfortunately, 16% of the parents in this study had been reprimanded at work for incidents related to caring for their child’s needs. And in many cases, one parent, generally the woman, eventually left the workforce entirely.
Changing the System
However, since raising a special needs child can be very expensive, going down to one income may be difficult. During Autism Awareness Month, organizations and communities work to increase awareness and understanding of autism spectrum disorders: what they are and how they affect children and adults. But when we think about how to help people with ASDs, it’s also important to think about how to support their working family members. The authors of this study suggest that more flexible workplace policies are crucial to assist parents who are striving to maintain their careers while also meeting their children’s needs. Making these policies a priority will help millions of other families and caregivers as well.
For more on ASDs and working while parenting children with special needs, visit the resources in Further Reading.
(Photo credit: Untitled by Startup Stock Photos. CC BY 2.0. Cropped.)
Further Reading:
National Autism Awareness Month
Autism Spectrum Disorder—from the CDC
Four things employers need to know about working parents of children with autism
Support for parents of kids with special needs–from KidsHealth
Children with Special Needs and the Workplace: A Guide for Employers
Reference:
Baker, D. L., & Drapela, L. A. (2010). Mostly the mother: Concentration of adverse employment effects on mothers of children with autism. The Social Science Journal, 47 (3), 578-592. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2010.01.013
(Originally published in a slightly different form as: Church, C. (2011). How a child’s autism affects working parents. [Radio broadcast episode]. Family Album Radio. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida.)
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