The impact of child and family stressors on the self-rated health of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder: Associations with depressed mood over a 12-year period.
Among mothers of children with autism, chronic stress steadily drags down self-rated health, and depression is the key lever you can act on.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Benson (2018) followed mothers of children with autism for 12 years. Every few years the moms rated their own health and answered questions about stress and mood.
The team wanted to know if child and family stress slowly wore mothers down, and whether depression acted as the middle step between stress and poorer health.
What they found
Mothers’ self-rated health slid downward as the years passed. Higher stress predicted worse health, and depressed mood explained part of that link.
In plain words, chronic stress chips away at moms’ health, and untreated depression speeds the chipping.
How this fits with other research
Reed et al. (2016) saw the same stress-health drop in a single snapshot two years earlier; Benson (2018) now shows the decline keeps going for more than a decade.
Taylor et al. (2012) found that right after diagnosis over three-quarters of moms were clinically depressed; the new study reveals that depression lingers and helps drive long-term health problems.
Sanz-Cervera et al. (2015) offers a seeming contradiction: parents of teens and adults with autism actually report less depression than parents of young kids. The difference is time frame—R tracks the heavy early years, while Pilar shows that once the child ages and routines stabilize, mood and health can level off.
Laister et al. (2021) flips the script: when preschoolers gained social-communication skills through an early-intervention program, moms felt less stress. Together the papers form a loop—child progress can ease stress, while ongoing stress (and the depression it fuels) can erode maternal health.
Why it matters
You already track client progress; now track caregiver mood just as closely. A quick depression screen at intake and every six months can catch the “middle step” that turns life stress into poor health. When scores climb, link families to mental-health services or support groups. Lowering maternal depression may not just help mom—it can stabilize the home environment that supports your ABA plan.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add the PHQ-2 to your caregiver intake packet and re-administer it every six months; if total score is 3 or higher, refer to a mental-health provider that same day.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Employing a cohort sequential design and multilevel modeling, the effects of child and family stressors and maternal depressed mood on the self-rated health of 110 mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder were assessed over a 12-year period when children in the study were 7-19 years old. Findings indicate a significant decline in self-rated health over time. In addition, child and family stressors, as well as maternal depressed mood, exerted significant between-persons effects on self-rated health such that mothers who reported more stressors and depressed mood across the study period were less likely to rate themselves in better health across that period. In addition, a significant within-person relationship between maternal depressed mood and self-rated health was found, indicating that at times when mothers reported higher levels of depressed mood than usual (their personal average across the study), they were significantly less likely to report better self-rated health. Finally, maternal depressed mood partially mediated the between-persons effects of child and family stressors on self-rated health such that increased stressors led to increased maternal depressed mood which, in turn, led to poorer maternal self-rated health. Findings suggest that chronic stressors erode maternal health over time and that depression may be an important mechanism linking stressors to decreased maternal health.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2018 · doi:10.1177/1362361317697656