Measuring Social Networks among Parents and Autism Heath Care Providers

衡量父母和自闭症医疗保健提供者之间的社交网络

• 批准号: 8214663
• 负责人: Stephen Raudenbush
• 金额: $ 23.4万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-02-01 至 2014-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8214663
• 关键词: Address; Autistic Disorder; Caring; Cereals; Characteristics; Child; Child Behavior; Clinic; Clinical; Complex; Data; Data Collection; Development; Diagnosis; Economics; Education; Evaluation; Feasibility Studies; Future; Health; Healthcare; Human Resources; Intervention; Interview; Knowledge; Laws; Learning; Link; Measures; Mediating; Methodology; Methods; Modeling; Monitor; Parents; Pattern; Perception; Physicians; Pilot Projects; Play; Preparation; Provider; Public Health; Questionnaires; Race; Recruitment Activity; Reliability of Results; Research; Research Design; Research Project Grants; Role; Schools; Services; Site; Social Network; Social Sciences; Sociology; Special Education; Structure; Surveys; Techniques; Testing; Time; Treatment Protocols; Treatment outcome; Validity and Reliability; Variant; base; design; disability; experience; improved; innovation; outcome forecast; parental influence; parental role; public health relevance; racial and ethnic disparities; teacher

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): To manage a child's autism treatment, parents need access to knowledge about autism, treatment approaches, special education law, and local services, as well as the capacity to monitor and coordinate a child's treatment. Parents' interactions with teachers or other care providers as well as other parents are likely to be critical to their knowledge and monitoring capacity. The proposed research uses innovative social network techniques to examine how parents learn from other parents and from clinicians, teachers, and other personnel about their child's autism treatments. We hypothesize that social networks influence parents' knowledge about autism treatment as well as their capacity to monitor treatment. Because social network ties tend to form among socially similar people, we expect that networks will partially mediate the influence of parent SES and race on parent knowledge and monitoring capacity. In addition, we anticipate that the formation of network ties among parents and between parents and clinicians/educators will differ by type of organization (school, clinic). Research on network dynamics among parents, clinicians, and teachers involved in autism treatment support new intervention models that can improve the efficacy of autism treatment and address disparities. Although sophisticated network methodologies have been applied in other studies of health and health care, they have been little used in the study of autism care. Because of this dearth of research, pilot study is essential prior to a major network study on this topic. The proposed research has three specific aims: (1) to carry out qualitative data collection at three racially and economically diverse school or clinic sites; (2) based on this fieldwork, to develop and pretest a network survey for use with parents and autism care providers; (3) to implement this survey in a three-wave panel across the three study sites in order to test acceptability and feasibility and generate preliminary data. This study will generate hypotheses, yield a field-tested survey instrument, and provide preliminary evidence about the effects of social networks on parents' capacity to manage their child's autism treatment, laying the groundwork for larger-scale research and intervention. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Autism is a significant cause of disability, and the prognosis for children with autism depends upon the treatment they receive. Social networks may help parents better manage their children's autism care. This mixed-methods pilot study will develop a network survey and generate preliminary data for a larger research project to examine the role that social networks play in autism care and develop new interventions.

描述（由申请人提供）：为了管理儿童的自闭症治疗，家长需要了解自闭症、治疗方法、特殊教育法和当地服务的知识，以及监督和协调儿童治疗的能力。家长与教师或其他护理提供者以及其他家长的互动可能对他们的知识和监督能力至关重要。拟议的研究使用创新的社交网络技术来研究父母如何从其他父母以及临床医生、教师和其他人员那里了解孩子的自闭症治疗方法。我们假设社交网络影响父母对自闭症治疗的了解以及他们监督治疗的能力。由于社交网络联系往往是在社会相似的人之间形成的，因此我们预计网络将部分调节父母社会经济地位和种族对父母知识和监控能力的影响。此外，我们预计家长之间以及家长与临床医生/教育工作者之间网络联系的形成将因组织类型（学校、诊所）而异。对参与自闭症治疗的家长、临床医生和教师之间的网络动态研究支持新的干预模式，可以提高自闭症治疗的功效并解决差异。尽管复杂的网络方法已应用于其他健康和保健研究，但在自闭症护理研究中却很少使用。由于研究的缺乏，在对该主题进行主要网络研究之前，试点研究至关重要。拟议的研究有三个具体目标：（1）在三个种族和经济多样化的学校或诊所开展定性数据收集； (2) 根据本次实地调查，制定并预先测试一项网络调查，供家长和自闭症护理提供者使用； (3) 在三个研究地点进行三波小组调查，以测试可接受性和可行性并生成初步数据。这项研究将提出假设，产生经过现场测试的调查工具，并提供有关社交网络对父母管理孩子自闭症治疗能力的影响的初步证据，为更大规模的研究和干预奠定基础。 公共卫生相关性：自闭症是导致残疾的重要原因，自闭症儿童的预后取决于他们接受的治疗。社交网络可以帮助父母更好地管理孩子的自闭症护理。这项混合方法试点研究将开展网络调查，并为更大的研究项目生成初步数据，以检验社交网络在自闭症护理中发挥的作用并开发新的干预措施。