Journal
JOURNAL OF CHILD AND FAMILY STUDIES
Volume 24, Issue 7, Pages 2038-2045Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10826-014-0004-7
Keywords
Empowerment; Positive gain; Autism spectrum disorder; Mothers; Distress; Stress
Categories
Funding
- Chair in Autism Spectrum Disorders Treatment and Care Research (Canadian Institutes of Health Research)
- NeuroDevNet
- Sinneave Family Foundation
- CASDA
- Autism Speaks Canada
- Health Canada
- Spectrum of Hope Autism Foundation
- New Investigator Fellowship from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience considerable amounts of distress and experiences of crisis. The Family Adjustment and Adaptation Response model provides a theory for understanding the experience of distress and crisis in families, and the purpose of the present study was to examine experiences of distress in mothers of individuals with ASD using this framework. We specifically investigated how parent empowerment and positive gain were related to their experiences of distress, whether as mediators or as moderators of child aggression. Participants included 156 mothers of children with ASD ranging in age from 4 to 21 years. Mothers completed an online survey of demographics, problem behaviors, family empowerment, positive gain, and distress. We conducted path analyses of multiple mediation and moderation. Results indicated that greater child problem behavior was related to less parent empowerment, which was related to greater maternal distress, supporting empowerment as a partial mediator. At the same time, greater child aggression was not related to maternal distress in mothers who report high rates of positive gain, suggesting that parent gain functions as a moderator. The implications for how and when clinicians intervene with families of children with ASD are discussed.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available