Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 May;53(5):2143-2152.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05531-0. Epub 2022 Mar 30.

Exploratory Study of Parenting Differences for Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attachment Disorder

Joanna Davies  1 , Laura Glinn  2 , Lisa A Osborne  3   4 , Phil Reed  2
Affiliations

Exploratory Study of Parenting Differences for Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attachment Disorder

Joanna Davies et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 May.

Abstract

The current study explored similarities and differences in parenting stress (PSI) and behaviours in parent reports of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attachment disorder (AD). 155 parents whose children had developmental delays and disorders completed the social communication questionnaire, Randolph attachment questionnaire, strengths and difficulties questionnaire, PSI, and parent-child relationship inventory. Parents of children with AD reported greater levels of PSI than parents of children with ASD. Parents of children reaching criteria for both disorders reported the greatest levels of PSI. Limit setting was poorest in parents of children with both classifications, followed by parents of children with AD, and then ASD. Limit setting mediated the relationship between PSI and child behaviour problems for parents of children with ASD < but not for parents of children with AD. These findings suggest different areas of difficulty for parents of children with these conditions, which may be of help in designing interventions.

Keywords: Attachment disorder; Attachment styles; Autism spectrum disorder; Behavioural problems; Co-morbidity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Abidin, R. R. (1997). Parenting Stress Index: A measure of the parent–child system. Scarecrow Education.
    1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Association. - DOI
    1. Berument, S. K., Rutter, M., Lord, C., Pickles, A., & Bailey, A. (1999). Autism screening questionnaire: Diagnostic validity. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 175(5), 444–451. - PubMed - DOI
    1. Buckner, J. D., Lopez, C., Dunkel, S., & Joiner, T. E., Jr. (2008). Behavior management training for the treatment of reactive attachment disorder. Child Maltreatment, 13(3), 289–297. - PubMed - PMC - DOI
    1. Chandler, S., Charman, T., Baird, G., Simonoff, E., Loucas, T., Meldrum, D., et al. (2007). Validation of the social communication questionnaire in a population cohort of children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 46(10), 1324–1332. - DOI