Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2014, Page 61

Uppeldi og menntUn/icelandic JoUrnal of edUcation 23(2) 2014 61
linda BjörK ólafsdóttir, snæfríðUr þóra egilson og K jartan ólafsson
Kjartan Ólafsson (kjartan@unak.is) lauk MA-prófi í félagsfræði frá Háskóla Íslands
árið 2000. Hann starfar sem lektor við Félagsvísindadeild Háskólans á Akureyri og
hefur verið gestafræðimaður við London School of Economics and Political Science í
London og Masaryk University í Brno. Síðustu ár hefur hann einkum stundað rann-
sóknir á fjölmiðlanotkun ungs fólks.
Quality of life of high-functioning children with autism
spectrum disorders, aged between 8–17 years
ABstrACt
Objectives: This study focused on the quality of life (QoL) of high-functioning chil-
dren with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), aged 8–17 years. The purpose of the
study was twofold; firstly to explore how high-functioning children with ASD exper-
ience their quality of life compared to peers in a control group. Secondly to explore
how parents evaluate their children’s QoL. The study is part of a larger project named
Quality of life, participation and environment of children living in Iceland which is imple-
mented in cooperation with the State Diagnostic and Counselling Center.
Method: A cross-sectional descriptive comparative design was used in the study. Data
was collected with the Icelandic version of the KIDSCREEN-27, a generic quality of life
questionnaire for use with children and adolescents. KIDSCREEN-27 measures five
QoL dimensions: Physical Well-being (5 items), Psychological Well-being (7 items), Parent
Relations & Autonomy (7 items), Social Support & Peers (4 items), and School (4 items).
A total of 109 children with ASD and 129 parents of children with ASD answered the
questionnaire as well as 251 children and 286 parents in a control group. Independent
t-tests were conducted to compare group differences. Mixed between-within subjects
ANOVA was used to relate QoL to background information on the children and their
families. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha.
Findings: Overall, high-functioning children with ASD were positive towards their
position in life although some difficulties existed. On the KIDSCREEN-27 the children
evaluated their QoL within half a standard deviation from the average normal dis-
tribution on all five QoL dimensions. The lowest scores were within the dimensions
Physical Well-being and Social Support & Peers where the children’s QoL was on the
verge of being less than average. Furthermore, children with ASD evaluated their QoL
to be significantly less than their peers in the control group on all dimensions. The par-
ents of high-functioning children with ASD evaluated their children’s QoL less than
half a standard deviation from the average normal distribution in four of five dimen-
sions; Physical Well-being, Psychological Well-being, Social Support & Peers and School.
On those four dimensions parents’ reports differed significantly from the children’s
scores. No differences were obtained between children with ASD and their parents on