Lower electrodermal activity to acute stress in caregivers of people with autism spectrum disorder: an adaptive habituation to stress.
Parents of kids with autism can look calm on the outside yet still be boiling inside.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ruiz-Robledillo et al. (2015) measured skin-conductance in caregivers of people with autism during a short lab stress test.
They compared these caregivers to adults who did not care for anyone with special needs.
What they found
The caregivers’ skin showed smaller sweat spikes during the stress task.
Even so, the same caregivers said they felt more anxious and had more headaches or stomach aches.
How this fits with other research
Lovell et al. (2012) found that parents who get more social support wake up with healthier cortisol levels.
Ljubičić et al. (2025) later showed these parents still have high evening cortisol, hinting that stress hormones stay high even when skin response is low.
Laposa et al. (2017) looked at kids with autism, not their parents, and saw the opposite: more skin-conductance swings meant worse symptoms.
Together, the papers show caregivers’ bodies may ‘turn down’ the skin alarm while stress chemicals stay high inside.
Why it matters
If you work with parents, do not trust a calm face or dry hands as signs they are fine. Ask about sleep, pain, and worry. Offer short respites or peer groups. Watch for the few who still sweat a lot under stress; they may need the most help.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add one quick question about recent headaches or sleep to your parent check-in.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Caring for a relative with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) entails being under chronic stress that could alter body homeostasis. Electrodermal activity (EDA) is an index of the sympathetic activity of the autonomic nervous system related to emotionality and homeostasis. This study compares EDA in response to acute stress in the laboratory between parents of people with (n = 30) and without (n = 34) ASD (caregivers and non-caregivers, respectively). Caregivers showed lower EDA in response to acute stress than non-caregivers. They also presented higher trait anxiety, anger, depression, and somatic symptoms than non-caregivers. Higher EDA was related to a worse mood and more severe somatic symptoms only in caregivers. These results could reflect an adaptive habituation to stress and establish that high EDA in response to acute stress depends on caregivers' health.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2015 · doi:10.1007/s10803-013-1996-3