Family burden and children with autism spectrum disorders: perspective of caregivers

PURPOSE: to evaluate the burden of family caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorders, as perceived by themselves. METHODS: 20 subjects participated, of both genders, aged between 22 and 60 years (mean = 32.6), ten families of children with autism spectrum disorders and, to compose the control group, ten family members of children with disorders language. The children were between three and ten years of age (Mean = 5.8). The control group was selected from the pairing of age, education and gender of children. In order to evaluate the caregiver burden Scale was used Burden Interview and sociodemographic data were collected from participants. The statistical analysis was performed from the Mann-Whitney and Spearman correlation analysis (p