Parental wellbeing of Iranian families with children who have developmental disabilities.
Iranian mothers of children with autism carry the heaviest stress and poorest family functioning, a pattern later seen across the Middle East and during COVID-19.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Samadi et al. (2014) asked Iranian parents about stress and family life. They compared families who had a child with autism to families who had a child with intellectual disability.
Parents filled out paper surveys at clinics. The team looked at who felt more strain.
What they found
Mothers of children with autism reported the highest stress and the poorest family functioning. Single parents also carried extra emotional weight.
Parents of children with intellectual disability felt less overwhelmed, but still needed support.
How this fits with other research
Laugeson et al. (2014) ran almost the same survey in the same year. They too found Iranian mothers of children with autism felt worse than fathers, backing up the main result.
Alhuzimi (2021) and Marcone et al. (2023) later asked parents in Saudi Arabia and Italy about stress during COVID-19. Both teams saw the same pattern: autism brings heavier parental strain, and loss of services makes it worse. These studies extend the 2014 finding into crisis times.
Older work by Sivberg (2002) already showed families living with autism felt more strain than those with other diagnoses. Samadi et al. (2014) confirm that gap still holds in Iranian culture.
Why it matters
If you serve Iranian or other Middle-Eastern families, know that an autism diagnosis hits mothers hardest. Offer mom-specific support groups and check in with single parents first. When services pause, stress spikes, so keep emergency telehealth or respite on your list of options.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
To date, most research with families who have a child with developmental disabilities has been undertaken in English speaking countries. Poorer health, allied with increased levels of stress has been commonly reported for mothers but less is known about the impact on fathers and on overall family functioning. This study aimed to document the correlates of these parental impacts with Iranian mothers and fathers who had children with either intellectual disabilities (ID) or with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In all 121 parents (69 mothers and 52 fathers from 94 families) who had a child with a diagnosis of ADS, along with 115 parents of children with ID (83 mothers and 32 fathers from 101 families) volunteered to take part in the study. Each participant completed through interview standardised rating scales of parenting stress, emotional well-being, family functioning and satisfaction with caring role along with demographic information and details of informal supports. Structural Equation Modeling identified that family functioning was much poorer in families whose child had ASD and both mothers and fathers reported higher levels of stress. Poorer emotional well-being contributed to higher stress and was more frequent among mothers, single parents and those whose children had behaviour problems. Having other dependents living at home and more sources of informal support improved the emotional wellbeing of parents but not their stress or family functioning. Parents who derived greater satisfaction from their caring role tended to have better emotional health and less stress. Although the impact on Iranian parents of having a child with developmental disabilities is broadly similar to those of parents in other cultures, there are indications that children with ASD present distinct challenges to these families. The model derived in this study is a useful guide both for further research as well as family-centred interventions.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.04.001