Identifying relations between child adaptive functioning, parent empowerment, and advocacy among families of young autistic children

When parents advocate for their offspring with autism, their children tend to receive more services and families report greater wellbeing. Yet, there are many barriers to parent advocacy. It is important to identify constructs that may serve as mechanisms of change to improve parent advocacy. Such mechanisms can be targeted in interventions. In this study, I examined the responses of 40 families of 3- to 5-year-old children with autism from low-resourced communities in the United States. Participants were enrolled in a randomised controlled trial. However, only baseline data were included in this study. Respondents completed measures related to their own empowerment, advocacy activities, and advocacy skills and comfort. Respondents also completed measures about their child's adaptive behavior and social responsiveness. Empowerment positively and significantly related to greater comfort with advocacy and individual advocacy activities. With respect to individual advocacy activities, there was a significant interaction between empowerment and child adaptive behavior. Implications for research and practice are discussed.