Stress, Coping, and Quality of Life of Parents of Children with Autism.
When parents believe they can cope, their quality of life rises even when autism severity and daily hassles stay the same.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Dawn and her team asked 152 parents of kids with autism to fill out four short forms. They wanted to know how daily hassles, child severity, coping confidence, and money shape a parent’s day-to-day life.
The survey took 15 minutes. Parents rated stress like “I was late to therapy again,” and how much they agree “I can handle my child’s meltdowns.”
What they found
Parents who believed “I can cope” scored higher on every quality-of-life scale. More money helped too.
Daily stressors—missed buses, spilled juice, long clinic waits—hurt quality of life the most. Higher autism severity added extra weight.
How this fits with other research
Reyes et al. (2019) looked at moms and dads of adults with autism. They also found money trouble and caregiving load crush life satisfaction. Dawn’s study shows the pattern starts earlier—while the child is still in grade school.
Jones et al. (2010) saw mothers of preschoolers with autism report sky-high stress. Dawn adds the flip side: confidence in coping can push stress back down.
Werner et al. (2013) showed stigma drags caregivers’ well-being down. Dawn did not measure stigma, so the two papers together hint both inside thoughts (“I can cope”) and outside judgment (“people stare”) matter.
Why it matters
You can’t mail a parent a bigger paycheck, but you can teach coping self-efficacy. Model calm breathing, break tasks into tiny steps, and praise parent success aloud. Five extra minutes of coaching today may lift a family’s whole week.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →End your next parent meeting by asking, “What’s one small win you had this week?” and write it on a sticky note for the fridge—build that coping muscle.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
PURPOSE: Parents of children with autism are exposed to stressors associated with the daily care of raising a child with a developmental disability, which may negatively impact parental quality of life (QOL). The specific aim of this study was to examine the relationships between demographic factors, stress, and coping among parental caregivers of children with autism to determine whether predictors of QOL exist. METHODS: This study was descriptive, and an electronic survey was distributed to parents of children, age 3-21 years old, diagnosed with autism. The survey measured parent-reported demographic factors, severity of the child's diagnosis of autism, parental stress, coping, and QOL. Data were analyzed using multiple regression. RESULTS: Study findings suggest that, in parental caregivers of children with autism in (N = 152) daily stressors, coping self-efficacy, and household income were predictors for physical QOL; daily stressors and coping self-efficacy were predictors of psychological QOL, and coping-self efficacy, household income, and severity of the diagnosis of the child were predictors for environmental QOL. CONCLUSION: Coping self-efficacy and improved income can positively improve QOL, while severity of the diagnosis of autism and daily stressors can negatively impact QOL. Clinically, nurses with a better understanding of the parental stress and coping in parents of children with autism can better recommend tailored resources to improve QOL. Policies to support financial help for families may also improve QOL. Future research should focus on interventions to support caregiver health.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1016/j.rautism.2015.11.008