摘要：Introduction: Scientific co mmunit ies are beginning to recognize more and more tension, burden and sometimes joy asso ciat ed with caring for child with aut ism. Purpose: To determine the impact of the disease on functioning of a family wit h an autistic child. Material and Methods: We analyzed 83 families with children diagno sed with autistic disease, including 30 Polish families, 25 families from Belarus and 28 families fro m France. Parents filled in a quest ionnaire assessing t heir knowledge about problems associated with raising an autistic child. Results: Parents fro m Poland found most difficult to accept the child's health conditio n, and families fro m France co ped with the problem best. Fo r all parents t he dominant impressio n after hearing the d iagnosis was shock, French parents were the least likely to asso ciate the disease as a punishment for t heir sins, which in t urn o ften occurred among respo ndents from Poland and Belarus. Parents from Belarus frequent ly complained abou t problems their aut ist ic child had wit h learning (about . of respo nses). While Polish parent s surprising ly oft en recognized as the most onerous carrying o ut procedures related to the t reatment of the child, they often co mplained about depression, sadness, inso mnia. Respo ndents from Belarus most frequent ly could enjo y every day. Amo ng the behaviours of autistic children differentiating t he examined countries were: d iso bedience (by far the least indications in France), persistence (the lowest percentage in Belarus) and lies (parents from Poland most often co mplained about that). Amo ng the parent s' reaction t o the annoying and stressful child's behaviour the at tempts to admonish and explain were do minant, but these were p arents from Poland, who frequently admitt ed that they shoutat the child. Conclusions: Among parents' reactio n to t he annoying and stressful child 's behavior is an attempt to admonish and explain, moreover, Polish parents frequently admit to shout at t he child. There are differences in the perception of t he pro blems of parents o f autistic children in selected countries, like Poland, France, and Belarus
