Changes in mothers' and fathers' stress level, mental health and coping strategies during the 3 years following ASD diagnosis.
Three years after diagnosis moms feel lighter, dads don’t—so keep dad supports running.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Rattaz et al. (2023) followed moms and dads for three years after their child got an autism diagnosis. They checked stress, anxiety, depression, and coping styles every year with surveys.
The team wanted to see if parents feel better, worse, or stay the same as time passes.
What they found
Mothers’ stress dropped. Both moms’ and dads’ anxiety and depression also went down. But fathers’ stress stayed flat—it never eased.
Moms also used fewer emotion-focused coping tricks, like venting or wishful thinking, as the years passed.
How this fits with other research
Demello et al. (1992) saw dads of autistic kids pile on extra coping efforts yet still call their family life positive. Cécile’s new data add a time lens: dads keep coping, but their stress level refuses to budge.
Tan et al. (2026) push the story further. They show that when parents stay emotionally reactive, their kids’ behavior problems grow two years later. Cécile’s finding—moms shift away from emotion coping—fits nicely: less venting may help both parent and child down the road.
Huang et al. (2014) found caregiver stress can be lowest when autism traits are mild to moderate, not severe. Cécile did not split groups by severity, but both papers flag that stress patterns are not simple.
Why it matters
You can stop assuming ‘time heals all.’ Moms may feel better, but dads often stay stuck. Build long-term mental-health checks into dad-specific supports—think fathers-only support nights or brief ACT coaching. Also, track hyperactivity and parent coping style; lowering emotional reactivity today may save you bigger behavior headaches next year.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: ASD in a child affects parental mental health, with elevated levels of stress, anxiety and depression reported in parents. METHOD: In this study, we examined mothers' and fathers' stress, anxiety and depression, as well as their coping strategies in a sample of 103 children and adolescents enrolled in the ELENA cohort study in France at diagnosis and three years after diagnosis. RESULTS: Results showed that mothers had higher levels of stress and anxiety / depression than fathers and used more social support coping strategies at diagnosis, which might be explained by increased levels of parental involvement. Mothers' stress level significantly decreased during the three years following ASD diagnosis but no such decrease was observed in fathers' stress level. A significant decrease in anxiety and depression was observed for both parents, suggesting that parental distress is particularly elevated during the critical diagnosis period. Results finally yielded a significant decrease in emotion-focused coping strategy in mothers over the three-year period, an ineffective strategy that takes places at the time of diagnosis but then decreases during the period following ASD diagnosis, in relation to the acceptance process. CONCLUSIONS: Implications in terms of addressing the unmet mental health needs of parents and their coping strategies are discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2023 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104497