ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Autism
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1562083
Patterns of Needs among Iraqi Families Caring for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Cross-sectional Study
Provisionally accepted
Nadia Kadhim Nayyef1Shatha Mohammed Jasim1,2
Faris Lami2,3Osamah Abbas Jaber1,2Nahid Dehghan Nayeri2,4Mahdi Shafiee Sabet2,5
Ghaith Al-gburi2,6*- 1Al-Subtain Academy for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Karbala, Iraq
- 2Al-Subtain University of Medical Sciences, International Branch of Tehran University for Medical Sciences, Karbala, Iraq
- 3College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
- 4School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Alborz, Iran
- 5Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Alborz, Iran
- 6School of Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
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Objective: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often require significant family support to carry out their daily activities. Assessing the needs of these families is important to optimize the use of the limited financial and professional resources available to them. This study aims to evaluate the needs of Iraqi families who care for children with ASD in various area and explore how these needs are related to the characteristics of child.Neurodevelopmental Disorders were included in a cross-sectional survey between January 20, 2024, and September 9, 2024. A structured standardized questionnaire was utilized to evaluate family needs in four domains: the need for information, explaining to others, childcare needs, and professional support.Result: 249 parents were interviewed, consisting of 196 (78.7%) mothers and 53 (21.3%) fathers.Over 80% of parents required support in finding information, particularly information regarding services available for their children. With in their perspective domains, support in finding reading materials about similar families and talking to them were the most requested needs, being mentioned by 40.6% and 18.1% of parents, respectively. Parents of children with comorbidities reported higher childcare and professional support needs, presumably due to a higher need for respite care and more time spent talking to teacher and therapists.Parents should be provided with better access to information, particularly regarding services available for their children, and more opportunities to communicate with teachers, therapists, and similar families to reduce social isolation.
Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Childcare, Medical comorbidity, Psychiatric comorbidity, Educational program, Family need, Respite Care
Received: 16 Jan 2025; Accepted: 29 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kadhim Nayyef, Mohammed Jasim, Lami, Abbas Jaber, Dehghan Nayeri, Shafiee Sabet and Al-gburi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ghaith Al-gburi, Al-Subtain University of Medical Sciences, International Branch of Tehran University for Medical Sciences, Karbala, Iraq
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