meghan_hardman

Dear all, Thank you so much for your responses. I am really pleased that you have told me your exact thoughts on my research, as, obviously, you understand the topic much more than I do. Firstly, the comment in relation to bias by different parents is a criticism of any research like this. It is so hard to control for this bias, therefore it is always taken into account when analysing the data. Hopefully, the personality questions will identify the type of person answering. Secondly, I completely agree with the comment about the two parents having very different personalities and parenting techniques. This is a major weakness in the research and will also be taken into account in the analysis. I am an undergraduate and this is my first major piece of research, therefore I am limited in the scale of the research. There is a very low response rate in surveys like this and it would be much harder to obtain data from both parents in every family. If I had a longer time scale, of course it would be much better and much more reliable to ask both parents. If my research leads to interesting findings, this is the type of thing I hope my research leads to. I do think, if the research works out, that it will be possible to draw some good conclusions. Obviously, the child's own thoughts are not a part of the research, therefore we rely on your perception of the child. Therefore, this interpretation also becomes part of the research and may be dependent on that parent's personality and their parenting style. Do you understand this? Please tell me what you think. I welcome any comments about my research and would like to thank you again for responding to this. Best, Meghan

Dear parents, My name is Meghan Hardman and I am currently in the third year of my degree in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University. I am carrying out a research project, looking at temperament in individual children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and how this relates to parental personality and parental coping. My aim is to identify the different personality types of children with Autism, which exist independently of the disorder, therefore seeing each child as an individual, rather than a member of a subgroup of children with Autism. I want to then look at whether this behavioural style of the child is influenced by the parent's personality and parenting style. In typically developing children, personality is expected to be influenced by the parents, therefore I predict that this also occurs in children affected by Autism. With this project I hope to increase our knowledge about those with Autism. Having had some experience with autistic children, I feel strongly about helping those affected by the disorder and am really hoping to benefit both parents and children, by finding positive results, which could eventually lead to further and broader research. I am writing to you to ask for your help. I have set up a questionnaire on the internet, including questions about your child’s autistic symptoms, your child’s temperament, your own personality and stress related to caring for an autistic child. The questionnaire is made up of 227 questions, which looks incredibly long and time consuming, however each question is quick to answer and should not take up too much of your time. I realise that you will have many competing demands on your time, however I would be incredibly grateful if you could help with my research by completing the questionnaire before 5th October 2009. Please only complete the questionnaire if your child is between the ages of 3 and 10 years old. My research is approved by the Oxford University Experimental Psychology Department and will follow strict ethical guidelines, particularly emphasising confidentiality of you and your child. The link for website with the survey on is http://bit.ly/1v9mC2 (to prevent confusion thats a letter 'l' before the 'y' and a number 1 before the 'v'.) I would be grateful to hear about your thoughts on this and whether you are willing to cooperate with my research. I have a document with instructions for the survey if required. PM me your email address and I will email it to you. Thank you. Best Wishes Meghan Hardman