Quality of life of family caregivers of children with autism: The mother's perspective.

Researchers asked 104 Taiwanese moms of children with autism to fill out the WHOQOL-BREF.

The survey looked at what helps or hurts a mother’s physical and mental quality of life.

Moms answered questions about their mood, health problems, and how often they join religious events.

Mothers who felt good about life scored higher on physical and mental health scales.

Chronic illness dragged scores down.

Surprisingly, stronger religious activity also linked to lower quality-of-life scores.

Reed et al. (2016) extends these results by showing everyday stress, not just parenting stress, hurts mom’s health.

Joosten et al. (2009) is a conceptual twin done in the U.S. the same year. They also found religious activity predicted worse outcomes, while private spirituality helped — the same split Bih-Ching saw.

Benson (2018) follows moms for 12 years and confirms that stress and low mood slowly wear down health, turning the 2009 snapshot into a long-term warning.

Naheed et al. (2020) moves the question to Bangladesh and adds a depression screen; nearly half the moms met criteria for major depression, showing the problem is global.

You now have a checklist: ask moms how they feel, screen for chronic illness, and notice if heavy religious activity masks fatigue or low mood. A quick WHOQOL-BREF at intake gives you numbers to track. Pair it with stress and depression screens like Phil et al. and Aliya et al. do. Treat maternal mood early; the whole family functions better when mom’s health is protected.