Mothers of autistic children: a study of their experiences with child-protection social services, and allegations of fabricated or induced illness

Background: Studies of autistic parenthood have consistently highlighted parents communication with health, education, and social services providers about their child as a source of stress due to stigmatization and discrimination. Our advisory panel suggested that mothers of autistic children might be at risk of unwarranted involvement with social services and unfounded accusations of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) i.e., fabricating illness in their child. The current study set out to explore these concerns. Aims: (1) To examine the degree of social service involvement in mothers who have an autistic child; (2) To quantify allegations of FII in mothers who have an autistic child; and (3) To test if either social services involvement or FII allegations varied as a function of whether the mother was herself autistic. Methods: N = 242 mothers of autistic children participated, comprising 3 groups: 101 autistic mothers with a formal diagnosis of autism; 67 mothers who self-identified as autistic; and 74 non-autistic mothers. All mothers completed a survey about involvement with social services and completed the short Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ-10). All 3 groups were comparable on education, employment and marital status. Results: Over 20% of mothers of autistic children, regardless of maternal diagnosis, reported being investigated by social services for child welfare concerns. We also found that 2.48% (N=6 of N=242) of all mothers, regardless of diagnosis, reported an investigation of FII, and around 5% (N=12 of N=242) reported an allegation or investigation of FII. Conclusions: There is an alarmingly high frequency of social services involvement and allegations of FII in mothers of autistic children. Local authorities should consider having a specialist team conduct needs assessments for autistic children as parent-child dyads affected by autism are a large and growing population of social services users.