Core experiences of parents of children with autism during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
During crises, autistic children adapt only as well as their parents cope—so shore up parent supports first.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Tokatly Latzer et al. (2021) talked with parents of autistic children during the first COVID-19 lockdown. They asked open questions about daily life, stress, and what helped families cope.
What they found
Parents said the lockdown made everything harder. When parents stayed flexible, creative, and upbeat, their kids adjusted better. The child’s success hinged on the parent’s own coping skills.
How this fits with other research
Polónyiová et al. (2022) surveyed Slovak families across two lockdown waves and found parent anxiety and child internalizing behaviors kept climbing. Their numbers back up Itay’s story: crisis stress rose, and autism families got hit hardest.
Adams et al. (2025) later showed the same link in everyday life. Higher coping self-efficacy and more income predicted better parent quality of life, while daily hassles and child severity dragged it down. Itay’s lockdown snapshot now looks like a special case of a steady rule: when parents feel they can cope, everyone does better.
Jones et al. (2010) had already seen that mothers of preschoolers with autism report the highest stress. Itay simply adds that during a crisis, that stress becomes the main lever for child adaptation.
Why it matters
If the parent cracks, the child’s day cracks too. Build parent coping first—teach quick relaxation, flexible scheduling, and upbeat reframes. One five-minute parent check-in at session start may do more for the child’s progress than any extra trial.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The lockdown and home isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant transformation in lifestyles. Being a parent in this situation was not easy for anyone, much less for parents of children with special needs. The shutting down of special education systems meant that parents lost a vital support network and had to be the sole full-time caregivers despite often lacking the skills to cope with this new and daunting situation. We interviewed parents and learned that the main difficulties faced by homebound autistic children stemmed from the change in routine, lack of special education services, limited physical space, and food- and sleep-related issues. Some children experienced worsening in behavioral, social, and developmental domains, yet others seemed to not only overcome the challenges of changing conditions but even benefit from them. The children's success or failure was directly related to how their parents coped. The key factors that enabled successful coping were the parents' ability to accommodate to the child's needs, their own creativeness and resourcefulness, and a generally positive outlook. The results of this analysis revealed that the best way to benefit autistic children caught up in drastic changes in their routine lifestyle is to invest in a strong support system for their parents.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2021 · doi:10.1177/1362361320984317