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Munteanu, Cornelia

Cornelia Munteanu

Part time student

Email: cmunteanu01@qub.ac.uk

Year of Entry: 2008

Thesis Title: Facing the diagnosis of autism in Europe. How do families cope in Romania and Ireland

Summary of Research: While the causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) still are not fully understood, increasingly research focuses on interventions and treatment of children diagnosed with ASD. Considerably less attention is paid to family systems, family functioning, and family needs. This research takes a family system perspective exploring how families with children on the autism spectrum function during the particularly stressful period of the diagnosis process and thereafter.

Recommendations made in this research include the need for empirical studies that address in detail family systems, family needs, the assessment and diagnostic process, service provision, social support networks, and additional stressful life events. This comparative study (Irish families and Romanian families with children on the autistic spectrum) makes a contribution to family studies and autism research field with a specific focus on the diagnosis.

Supervisor: Prof Karola Dillenburger