What is your family's socio-economic background ?

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I was wondering if there is a connection between AS and socio-economic background of one's parents.

Not everyone has the same definition of social classes. It was a bit difficult to describe them in the poll, so take it with a grain a salt.

by family, do you mean family of orgin, or family now.
april

My parents both came from poor families and were both first-generation college students. I don't think we really fit the middle-class mold, though.

Im from a middle class family, however, I am not. I dont make enough money to "get out on my own" so I am stuck. I went to college and got tons of education, then "poof" cant find a job. So I work as a dispatcher for a police and fire dept until I can get back into the fire service full time.

I think class or socio-economic background has a huge impact on outcomes for people with disability - parents with more money/time to spend on a 'difficult' child as compared to parents without the money or time to do 'extra' for a child.

My parents were battlers who payed off a modest home on one 'white collar' income. I guess that's 'lower middle class'. They weren't particularly supportive or interested in my problems and I don't think I've done particularly well in life financially. I just get the pension now.

I think people with aspergers are often from a family with an above averge socio-economic status because many engineers and scientists have aspergers or children with aspergers. My for example is an architect and he said at his office many people have aspergers, he does not but I do. Engineers recieve a higher pay than the average job. Also people of lower class may have aspergers but not know about it because they don't have the financial means to pay for a specialist. They also may not have a computer and so they are not a member of this site.

My parents where kind of poor as a kid, and I live in a higher middle class. With that said, the average income in my area is less than $20,000.

My parents both only graduated from highschool and they work in factories. All my siblings and myself are going to college though.

Poll choices don't reflect the reality I experienced, surely I'm not the only one to think so. My parents were over-educated & under-paid, so which trumps which in "class" label ? I'm NOT offended by question-in case I sound it here.
Mother's mother had clerical jobs, father had some white-collar behind-the-scenes jobs w/airlines. Father's father was a dairy farmer, mother ran bookshop. My mother was a librarian, got post-grad degrees. My father was a college professor, got post-grad degrees.
Only have vague notion of how family members were situated financially, and only after I was born, of course. Most had interest in "highbrow" culture, don't think it was in a snob-like way, though-they didn't make distinctions between people based on money, occupation, or where you got your learning.
Mother's side had money, Father's side had land-not much, but more than others. Households (clusters of relatives) had enough $ to have a car to drive & own a home. Those things were before my time-both my parents were poor (sometimes on food stamps) but each had established a sustainable lifestyle, mostly. Father was open about being poor, but Mother was able to hide it from me. Both had "sophisticated" tastes, keen intellects, and were intense(for better & worse !) people.
Myself-completed 3 years of college & dropped out. Never had a real job in the world, been on welfare when there's been no one in my life to support me. Booksmarts don't translate to coping w/life, in my story. Sorry if this isn't really an answer...

duh.....i just saw "parents" in the poll. guess i need to look closer next time.
april

My mum's background is firmly southern u/m-middle class. Colonialsim & freemasons on one side.

My dads origins were resolutely working class, single mother family in the industrial north f*** all income so no money for toys etc. He bettered himself through evening classes and eventually became middle class.

Ive let every oppurtunity offered by my priveledged start in life pass me by and i now live in social housing, so id call myself 'fallen' middle class.

While I've heard that many children of engineering and computer-types tend to be aspies, I think it has as much to do with the fact that those folks have the money and the intellect to get their children the early interventions and medical care they need as it does with actual preponderance of cases. Quite frankly, an inner city kid on medicaid is much more likely to be diagnosed with adhd or defiant/oppositional or even bp, whereas a kid on private insurance in a suburban school district has a much higher likelihood of having a pdd as their dx. Just my .02.

In our case, mom, me, comes from a family with a white collar dad who looked and acted upper middle but the $$ were down around poverty level, with a SAHM. My husband's family was a mess, mom died, father walked out, and I'm sure hubby is an aspie but he's never been dx'd. I would say our household is now solidly middle class, my collars are white and hubby's are blue. I have my master's, am way overeducated and underemployed, hubby got his hs diploma by the skin of his teeth. We live in small town west texas and do ok.

I mean your parents (as in the poll title), as they are the ones who have had the biggest influence in your first years of your life. I read that children of people working in IT or scientific jobs, especially those typically refererd as "geeks", have a much higher chance of having children with autistism or Asperger Syndrome.

My guess is that children born in well-off families, with working parents that have less time to care about them, or raised to have a lot of solitary or intellectual games (Lego blocks, board games, video games...), might develop a more self-centered personality, and care less about social contacts.

Naturally, if both parents are already not very sociable and "geeky", the hereditary factor will be higher too.

I think this is all true, but I still also think genetics play a part as well.

My parents were lower middle class by income but middle class by education. My husband's parents were middle class by income but upper middle class by education. I'm not sure how to answer the poll.

My family is middle class. My dad grew up somewhat lower-middle class (barely), and my mum was raised in a working class family (pretty poor).

My dad has a Ph.D and my Mom a Master's but they are not "well off". They own a house and cars, and have insurence, if that's what you mean by well-off. But they are stripped money-wise. No vacations, little in the way of nice stuff (the cars are late models, but ecomony cars in the 10K range). So I'm not sure what to vote if at all.