Profiles of the parenting experience in families of autistic children

Abstract

Research shows that parents of autistic children, on average, are stressed; however, there is likely an array of factors that characterize the parenting experience in the context of autism other than stress. Understanding the diversity in the parenting experiences of both mothers and fathers of autistic children is important in the development of family-based intervention. A total of 188 co-habiting couples with an autistic child described their parenting experiences using a series of questionnaires examining their feelings of stress, parenting competence, and parenting attitudes and behaviors. We then sorted responses into profiles-three for mothers and four for fathers. We found that children of parents who reported the least amount of stress, highest feeling of competence, and use of responsive and directive parenting strategies (the Adaptive profile) had children with the least severe behavioral problems and autism symptoms. It was not necessary for both parents to be in the Adaptive category for child emotional and behavioral problems to less severe. We found that children did just as well when one parent was Adaptive compared with when both parents fell into this category.

Keywords: autism; family; parenting; person-centered approach.

Figure 1.

Visual representation of both mothers (lines labeled 1–3) and fathers (dashed or dotted lines labeled 4–6) parenting experience profiles from the latent profile analysis. Profile 1: Mother Adaptive. Profile 2: Mother Average. Profile 3: Mother Distressed. Profile 4: Father Adaptive. Profile 5: Father Average. Profile 6: Father Permissive-Distressed. Profile 7: Father Authoritarian-Distressed.

Figure 2.

Mean differences in child outcomes based on whether both parents were most likely to fall into the adaptive profile (Both), the mother was categorized as adaptive, but the father was not (Mom), the father was categorized as adaptive resilient, but the mother was not (Dad), or neither parent in the same family part of the adaptive parenting profile. Sx = symptoms; Bx = behaviors. Scores were significantly higher in the ‘neither’ category (* p < .05) across all child outcomes compared to all other groups. There was not a statistically significant differences in child outcomes between both, mom, or dad categories.