Vicarious futurity in autism and childhood dementia.

Neuringer et al. (2007) asked parents of children with autism and childhood dementia about their hopes and fears for their child's future.

They used a short survey that measured two separate feelings: vicarious hope and vicarious despair.

The team wanted to know if these two feelings are opposite ends of one scale or two different scales.

Parents gave different answers for hope and despair. Some felt high hope and low despair. Others felt both or neither.

The data showed hope and despair are best counted as two separate scores, not one combined score.

Hines et al. (2012) later interviewed older parents of adults with autism. These parents kept hope alive by saying, "My child's real self is buried under autism." Their interviews extend the 2007 finding that hope and despair live side-by-side.

Kaan et al. (2025) surveyed Turkish parents who chose to have a second child after an autism diagnosis. Most said they did it to give their autistic child a future friend and caregiver. This choice shows vicarious hope turning into action, building on the 2007 survey.

Szempruch et al. (1993) asked parents of children with intellectual disability what they expected for the future. Child age and years in services shaped their expectations. That older survey is a predecessor: it measured parental outlook first, but without splitting hope and despair.

When you meet parents, ask two questions: "What are your hopes?" and "What are your worries?" Record each answer separately. One score can be high while the other is low. This small shift gives you a fuller picture of where the family stands and what supports they need next.