Parenting Stress and Closeness Mothers of Typically Developing Children and Mothers of Children With Autism

• Published in: Focus on autism and other developmental disabilities Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 178 - 187
• Main Authors: Hoffman, Charles D., Sweeney, Dwight P., Hodge, Danelle, Lopez-Wagner, Muriel C., Looney, Lisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2009; SAGE Publications and Hammill Institute on Disabilities; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Attachment Behavior; Autism; Behavior Patterns; Behavior Problems; Child Rearing; Children; Communication Skills; Developmental Disabilities; Down Syndrome; Family Environment; Intervention; Mothers; Norm Referenced Tests; Parent Child Relationship; Parent Education; Parenting Stress Index; Parents & parenting; Personal relationships; Psychiatry; Rating Scales; Resistance (Psychology); Scores; Statistical Data; Stress; Stress Variables; maternal stress; attachment; autism; parenting
• ISSN: 1088-3576; 1538-4829
• DOI: 10.1177/1088357609338715

Mothers of children diagnosed with autism (N = 104) reported higher levels of stress than mothers of typically developing children (N = 342) on 13 of 14 subscales of the Parenting Stress Index. The only scores that did not differ were from the Attachment subscale, which indicates lack of emotional closeness and rather cold patterns of parent-child interaction. Mean Child Domain subscale scores for mothers in the autism group were at the 99th percentile; mean scores on the Attachment subscale were at about the 50th percentile for both groups. Despite substantial stress, mothers of children with autism report close relationships with their children. Results substantiate the need to develop interventions to help these mothers reduce their stress.