Awareness of Psychosocial Needs Among Parents of Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities

Background: Parents of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs) play a critical role in identifying and responding to their child’s psychosocial needs. However, parental awareness often varies based on demographic characteristics such as gender, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, age and community background. Limited empirical evidence exists on how these demographic variables influence the level of such awareness from an under-represented South Asian context. Objective: The present study focuses on exploring parental awareness about the psychosocial needs of NDDs children in the age group of 6 – 12 years and test associations with gender, educational qualification, socioeconomic status (SES), age and community. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 30 parents comprised of 18 mothers and 12 fathers whose children had a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Disability or Specific Learning Disability. A ‘Psychosocial Needs Checklist’ developed by the researcher, which consisted of 30 items across emotional, behavioural, social, cognitive and adaptive domains, was administered. The scores ranged from 0 to 60, with higher scores indicating greater awareness. Data were analyzed using non-parametric tests Kruskal – Wallis H test, Mann – Whitney U test and Spearman’s rank correlation since the score distribution was not normal and the group sizes were not equal. Findings: 1. Parental awareness also showed significant variation across the diagnostic groups in an increasing order: ASD > SLD > ID. 2. Mothers showed a higher level of awareness of psychosocial needs than fathers. 3. Awareness increased consistently with higher level of education, with graduates and parents holding professional degrees showing the strongest awareness. 4. Socio-economic status (SES) was a strong predictor of awareness as parents from high-SES families demonstrated significantly greater awareness compared to middle and low SES groups. 5. Parental awareness varied by age group as parents aged 31 – 40 years showed higher awareness, though the oldest group, which consisted of those aged 41 – 50 years, recorded the lowest scores. 6. Urban and semi-urban parents were significantly more aware than rural parents, indicating a pronounced geographic gap. Conclusion: Parental awareness of psychosocial needs significantly varies across all demographic variables. These disparities signal the importance of targeted psychosocial training, equity in service access and context-sensitive interventions, particularly for fathers, rural families and those from low-SES groups.