Measuring family outcomes for young autistic children receiving interventions in China: The structure of the Family Outcomes Survey and predicting variables.
The Chinese Family Outcomes Survey is valid and reveals lower family well-being linked to education, income, and time with child.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Xie et al. (2023) checked if the Chinese Family Outcomes Survey Form A works for families of autistic children in China. They gave the survey to caregivers and looked at what predicted higher or lower scores.
The team wanted a tool that feels right in Chinese culture and shows which families need the most help.
What they found
The survey fit the data well, so it is valid to use in China. Caregivers rated their family outcomes lower than Western parents usually do.
Lower scores were tied to less education, lower income, unemployment, and spending less time with the child.
How this fits with other research
Sun et al. (2013) already showed that autism services in China are scarce and costly. The new survey gives families a voice to measure the gap.
Mello et al. (2019) found higher child skills and more family resources boost quality of life in U.S. preschoolers. Huichao’s team saw the same pattern in China, but scores started lower, matching the thin support Xiang described.
Feng et al. (2025) interviewed Chinese parents and heard heavy caregiving and isolation. The low survey scores now put numbers on those feelings.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, culturally fit survey to screen Chinese families for unmet needs. Use it at intake to spot parents with low education, income, or little time with their child, then layer on parent training, flexible scheduling, or social-support groups before starting child intervention. Tracking the same form later shows if your family supports are working.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Efforts to measure, document, and monitor family outcomes can be helpful to practitioners in developing and delivering effective and sustainable interventions. Researchers have developed the Family Outcomes Survey, Form A, for measuring the outcomes experienced by families of children in the early intervention/early childhood special education system. Little has been reported on how well the five outcomes on the Family Outcomes Survey, Form A describe the experiences and expectations of families of autistic children in China. We conducted a survey using the Family Outcomes Survey, Form A, Chinese version with 467 caregivers of young autistic children in China. First, the five-outcome structure of the Family Outcomes Survey, Form A seemed to be appropriate for measuring family outcomes of autistic children in China. We also found that the Chinese caregivers of autistic children seemed to give general lower ratings on all five outcomes on the Family Outcomes Survey, Form A as compared to caregivers of children in early intervention/early childhood special education in Western countries like the United States and Australia. Furthermore, caregivers' ratings on the five Family Outcomes Survey, Form A outcomes seemed to be related to their educational attainment, employment status, family income level, and how much time caregivers spent with their autistic child. This study supported the use of the Family Outcomes Survey, Form A, Chinese version with families of autistic children in China. We also discussed how the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic could have impacted the family outcomes as reported by the Chinese caregivers.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2023 · doi:10.1177/13623613231152563