Peer-reviewed article
A study on the correlation between family nurturing care environment and children with autism spectrum disorder or at high risk
ZHU Yaqiong, XU Lei, WU Linqing, GONG Jianmei ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined the relationship between family nurturing care environments and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or high-risk status in children. Researchers compared 30 children with ASD or at high risk against 113 typically developing children using health records and surveys. The study found that maternal health problems before and during pregnancy, being male, and poor diet increased ASD risk, while more paternal involvement and responsive parent-child interaction reduced risk.
Key points
- Maternal adverse conditions during the 3 months before pregnancy and throughout pregnancy were positively associated with ASD or high-risk status (OR=6.026)
- Male gender was positively correlated with ASD or high-risk status (OR=4.064)
- Unbalanced dietary structure was positively associated with ASD or high-risk status (OR=7.281)
- Paternal companionship over 2 hours per day was negatively associated with ASD or high-risk status (OR=0.025)
- Parent-child interaction with responsive care was negatively associated with ASD or high-risk status (OR=0.824)
Limitations
The study is a case-control design with a relatively small case group (30 children), which limits causal inference. The country of origin is not specified, and the self-designed questionnaire was not validated, which may affect the reliability of family nurturing care measurements.
Abstract
ObjectiveTo analyze the correlation between family nurturing care environment and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or at high risk, and to provide scientific evidence for the tertiary prevention of ASD in children at high risk.MethodsA case-control study, enrolling 30 children with ASD or at high risk for ASD as the case group, and 113 normal children who underwent routine physical examinations at the community health service centers and district maternal and child health care hospital during the same period as the control group, was conducted. The information for maternal pregnancy and childbirth, children, and family nurturing care was collected through the child healthcare system and a self-designed questionnaire survey. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify the relevant factors for ASD or high-risk status in children.ResultsMultivariate logistic regression analyses showed that among maternal and child factors, maternal adverse conditions during the 3 months before pregnancy and throughout pregnancy (OR=6.026, 95%CI: 1.575‒23.062), and male gender (OR=4.064, 95%CI: 1.046‒15.784) were positively correlated with ASD or high risk status in children (P<0.05). Among family nurturing care factors, unbalanced dietary structure (OR=7.281, 95%CI: 1.819‒29.148) was positively correlated with ASD or high-risk status in children (P<0.05), while paternal companionship >2 h·d-1 (OR=0.025, 95%CI: 0.001‒0.426) and parent-child interaction with responsive care (OR=0.824, 95%CI: 0.704‒0.963) were negatively correlated with ASD or high-risk status in children (P<0.05).ConclusionFactors positively correlated with ASD or high-risk status in children include maternal adverse conditions during the 3 months before pregnancy and throughout pregnancy, male gender, and unbalanced dietary structure. Factors negatively correlated with it include paternal companionship and parent-child interaction with responsive care. Clinically, comprehensively management of maternal pre-pregnancy and prenatal health, children’s diet and family nurturing care, along with focused developmental monitoring of boys, and efforts toward early detection, early diagnosis and early intervention should be strengthened.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Enhanced family nurturing care including increased paternal companionship and responsive parent-child interaction
- Population
- Children aged 0 to early childhood with ASD or at high risk for ASD, compared to typically developing children
Key finding
Paternal companionship >2 hours per day was associated with reduced ASD or high-risk status (OR=0.025, 95% CI: 0.001-0.426)