85% Divorce Rate of Autism Parents / Autism Abuse and Murder
A lot of you probably saw the story this week on 13 year old, Jacob Grabe, who had autism and was killed by his dad in September. (Autism’s terrible toll: Parents risk hitting “a breaking point”)
The article talks about parents reaching their breaking point and killing their child. These stories are not new and very sad to say the least. I must say that I am more than a little shocked at the number of cases where this has happened. I’ve seen a lot of stories on the “safe haven” laws around the country where parents can drop kids off at a hospital, police station, etc. While these laws are intended to stop newborns from being killed and dumped, I wonder what these laws have to say about special needs children. I know there has been a lot of talk related to age limits after the mess created in Nebraska, but age probably should not be a factor if special needs are involved. Drop me a line if you have any information on this topic.
This article also mentions the divorce rate of families impacted by autism.
“There is an 85 percent divorce rate among parents of autistic children.”
I still have yet to find a source for any of these 80%+ numbers, other than someone seems to have pulled it out of thin air on Oprah. I don’t totally doubt that the number is high, but would just like to see some hard numbers on it. It seems like if they can tell you that you are X % more likely to be divorced if you live together before marriage or Y % more likely to stay together if you are of the same religion; someone could come up with some real data on this issue.
Related:
- Does Autism in the Family Lead to Divorce?
- Sources Of Stress For Families Of Children With Autism
- Katherine “Katie” McCarron - Beautiful, Precious and Happy Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Killed by her Mom
- Ulysses Stable - Killed by his dad
- Kyle Dutter - Killed by his dad (Kyle’s website created by dad. So sad.)
- Will Lash - Killed by his dad - Ex-Bush Aide Fatally Shoots Son, Himself
- Brandon Williams - Killed by his mom
Filed under: Abuse, Autism in the news, Divorce, Stress
