Coping and Well-Being in Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

Lai et al. (2015) asked 100 moms of kids with autism to fill out four short surveys. The surveys measured stress, depression, coping style, and well-being.

They compared the answers to a group of 100 moms of kids without disabilities. All kids were between 3 and 18 years old.

Moms of kids with autism scored twice as high on stress and depression. They also used more "active avoidance" coping, like pretending the problem will go away.

These moms rated their own well-being much lower than the comparison moms did.

Mammarella et al. (2022) extends this work by showing dads feel stress differently than moms. Wei’s paper only looked at moms, so adding fathers rounds out the picture.

Payne et al. (2020) found that parents who see their pets as helpful report less stress. This gives a simple, low-cost support to add alongside Wei’s call for caregiver help.

Alon (2019) showed that social support predicts personal growth in autism moms but not Down syndrome moms. This supports Wei’s plea for autism-specific support groups.

High stress and depression in parents can spill over into therapy sessions and home practice. Build a five-minute caregiver check-in at the start of each month. Ask about stress, share local parent-group contacts, and celebrate small wins. Lower parent stress means better follow-through on programs and more learning for the child.