Online Information for Caregivers of Adolescents with Autism

Many adolescents with autism live at home with their immediate family. Family members, usually the mother, are often the caregivers of these adolescents. These families are present in all levels of society. Many find their caregiving duties challenging, as there is no clear consensus on how to best support adolescents with autism. Also, many caregivers lack the knowledge, financial resources, and time to provide optimal support. These challenges are uniquely distinct from challenges that caregivers of adolescents without autism face, and due to this experience, this group has its own certain characteristics, such as stress, fatigue, and health issues. This group would benefit from support for both themselves and their adolescent. One way to support this group is by providing specific, accessible, and reliable information that is relevant to their situation. One of the most common ways of obtaining this information is online. This paper evaluates websites that caregivers of adolescents may use to find this information and examines the challenges of finding usable information from these websites. These challenges include sorting through a vast amount of semi relevant information, often presented in advanced language, in order to find something that can be potentially be of use.

Author dc:creator

• Pervin, Nili

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Morr, Christo El

• Sociology

Statement dc:rights

• Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10315/37798

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/37798