Behavioral and emotional profile and parental stress in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder.
Fix behavior problems first; they drive parent stress more than autism severity ever does.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Giovagnoli et al. (2015) compared preschoolers with autism to same-age peers without autism. They asked parents to fill out forms about child behavior and their own stress levels.
The team used a quasi-experimental design. This means they looked at existing groups instead of randomly assigning kids.
What they found
Parents of preschoolers with autism said they felt more stressed. They also rated their kids as having more behavior problems.
The key point: behavior problems predicted parent stress far better than autism severity did. Tantrums and non-compliance mattered more than social or language delays.
How this fits with other research
Yorke et al. (2018) pooled many studies and reached the same conclusion. Extra emotional or behavioral issues in kids with autism raise parent stress. Their meta-analysis treats the 2015 paper as one piece of evidence.
Scibelli et al. (2021) extended the idea to teens. Again, behavior problems and cognitive delays predicted maternal stress, not core autism traits.
Katz et al. (2003) seems to disagree. They saw stress and behavior problems worsen together over a year. The difference: their sample had broader developmental delay, not just autism. Method choices, not true conflict, explain the mismatch.
Why it matters
You can ease family strain faster by targeting challenging behaviors than by chasing every autism symptom. Write behavior plans that cut tantrums, sleep issues, or non-compliance first. When those drop, parents breathe easier and can better support therapy at home.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were shown to experience more stress than parents of typically developing peers, although little is known about risk factors predicting stress in this population. The aim of this study was to evaluate parental stress levels and behavioral and emotional problems in a sample of preschool children with ASD as compared to typically developing (TD) peers and to investigate the role of several factors, including the severity of autistic symptoms, adaptive skills, cognitive abilities and behavioral and emotional problems, on parental stress. Results confirmed that parents of children with ASD experience higher stress levels than parents of TD and that children with ASD show more behavioral and emotional problems than controls. Moreover, our results showed that behavioral and emotional problems are strong predictors of parental stress, while stress related to a parent-child dysfunctional relationship was associated with daily living and communication skills as well as cognitive abilities. Findings revealed different behavioral and emotional problems affecting parental stress in ASD and TD samples. No association between the severity of autism symptoms and parental stress was detected. These results suggest that dysfunctional behaviors in preschool children with ASD have a strong impact on parental stress, profoundly affecting the well-being of the entire family. Therefore, strategies aimed at the early detection and management of these behavioral and emotional problems are crucial in order to prevent parental stress and to develop the most appropriate treatment interventions.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2015 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2015.08.006