Daily Dynamics of Parental Sleep Quality and Parenting in Chinese Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Positive coping and social support lift next-day well-being for Chinese parents of autistic kids, while child stress drags mothers down.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Wang et al. (2025) asked Chinese moms and dads of kids with autism to fill out a short diary every night for two weeks. They wrote down how well they slept, how stressed they felt about their child, what coping they used, how much help they got from friends or family, and how satisfied they felt with life.
The team then looked at how one day's answers predicted the next day's mood. They kept track of both mothers and fathers, not just moms.
What they found
When mothers wrote about high child-related stress, their life satisfaction dropped that same night. When both parents wrote about more social support or used positive coping like reframing or planning, their well-being rose the same day and stayed higher the next day.
Good coping acted like a booster shot: the benefit carried over for twenty-four hours.
How this fits with other research
Lee et al. (2023) ran a similar daily diary and saw the flip side: after moms slept poorly, they felt more fatigue and parenting frustration the next day. Hui's team adds that coping and support can offset that downward spiral.
İ et al. (2024) looked at Turkish families during COVID lockdown and found social support dropped while child hyperactivity rose. That seems opposite to Hui's result, but the Turkish kids were older and families were under pandemic stress. Same construct, different context.
Dyches et al. (2016) showed that single moms who used respite care recorded more daily uplifts and less depression. Hui widens the lens: any parent, married or not, can create daily uplifts through positive coping and tapping social support.
Why it matters
You can build these levers into parent training tonight. After session, ask mom or dad to name one friend they can text for encouragement and one coping skill they will use before bed. Track mood at the next visit. Small nightly actions create next-day gains for the whole family.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The present study examined the influences of child-related stress, parental coping and social support on parental daily subjective well-being (i.e. positive and negative affect, life satisfactory) in Chinese families of children with autism spectrum disorder. For 14 days, a total of 76 parents (58 mothers) participated in the study and completed daily diaries. For mothers, child-related stress was related to lower life satisfaction; social support was related to higher life satisfaction that day. These daily relations were not found for fathers. Across all parents, avoidant coping was associated with higher negative affect and lower positive affect on the same day. Notably, daily positive coping was related to greater same-day positive affect as well as greater same-day and next-day life satisfaction. Interventions aimed at increasing positive coping and social support, and reducing child-related stress and avoidant coping are important to help parents maintain well-being, particularly for mothers of children with autism.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1177/13623613221144191