Stress and psychological wellbeing among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder
- Author:
Azlina Wati Nikmat
;
Mahadir Ahmad
;
Ng Lai Oon
;
Salmi Razali
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
parental stress, psychological wellbeing, autism, social support
- From:ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry
2007;8(1):65-72
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Objective: To investigate the prevalence of parental stress and psychological wellbeing
among parents with autistic children and their associations with dimensions of support system.
Methods: This is a preliminary cross sectional study which randomly selected parents
with clinically diagnosed autistic children. Those parents who attended psycho-education session
on management of autistic children at Health Psychology Unit were randomly selected to
enroll in the study. Psychological wellbeing, parental stress and dimensions of support system
were assessed by using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), the Parenting Stress Index
(PSI) and the Provision Social Relation (PSR), respectively. Results: Of 52 parents with
autistic children (34 female and 18 male), about 90.4% of parents had significant parenting
stress, and 53.8% of parents showed clinical disturbance in psychological wellbeing. Gender
(t=1.67, p=0.02) and occupation (F=4.78, p=0.01) showed statistically significant association
with psychological wellbeing. No association found between other socio-demographic factors,
parental stress and psychological wellbeing with dimensions of support system among
parents with autistic children. Conclusion: Parents with autistic children have high prevalence
of stress and psychological disturbances. Interactions of various factors need to be acknowledged
and considered in order to reduce the burden of parents with autistic children.
