Comparison of mental health, well-being and parenting sense of competency among Australian and South-East Asian parents of autistic children accessing early intervention in Australia.
South-East Asian parents in the same Australian early-intervention program feel better and report fewer autism-related difficulties than Australian parents—culture matters.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Armstrong et al. (2021) asked parents filling the same Australian early-intervention waiting rooms to fill out short surveys.
They compared two groups: Australian-born parents and South-East Asian immigrant parents. All families had a young child with autism.
The survey asked about mental health, well-being, and how competent parents felt raising their child.
What they found
Both groups scored worse than the general public on mental health.
Yet South-East Asian parents reported higher well-being and saw fewer difficult behaviors in their children.
Culture shaped how parents felt, even when services were the same.
How this fits with other research
Lai et al. (2015) first showed that autism parents feel more stress and depression than other parents. Jodie’s team adds that culture can soften or sharpen that stress.
Lee et al. (2026) interviewed Korean mothers only and found religion can buffer distress. Jodie widens the lens by comparing two cultures under one service system.
Dai et al. (2024) followed families for a year and saw parenting confidence predict quality of life. Jodie’s snapshot shows South-East Asian parents already rate their competence higher, hinting that confidence may start earlier.
Why it matters
You already screen for parent stress. Add one quick question: “Where is your family from?” If the answer is South-East Asia, still offer support, but know the family may report less strain. For Australian-born families, expect higher reported stress and plan extra check-ins. Culture is data you can collect in 10 seconds and use right away.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We know that parents of autistic children experience poorer mental health and lower well-being than parents of non-autistic children. We also know that poorer mental health among parents of autistic children has been observed across different cultures. Most research focuses on Western cultures, so we know little about parental mental health and well-being of parents from different cultural backgrounds; yet, it is likely that cultural background contributes to how parents view their child's condition and respond to the diagnosis. Here, we compared mental health, quality of life and well-being between families raising an autistic child from Australian backgrounds to families from South-East Asian backgrounds. All children in the current study were receiving the same community-based early intervention. When compared to the general population, parents had poorer mental health overall, but there were no differences between the two groups of parents. However, parents from South-East Asian backgrounds reported higher well-being and fewer difficulties associated with their child's autism. These findings suggest that cultural background likely influences not only parent's view of, and response to, their child's autism, but also their own sense of well-being. As researchers and clinicians working with families of autistic children, we should more explicitly consider family's cultural background within our work.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2021 · doi:10.1177/13623613211010006