Parental Stress and Style in Mothers and Fathers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Learning Disabilities and Emotional Problems

Background: Parenting is a process which constitutes a key component in the child’s life. In addition, children with special needs present several difficulties to the parents. Considering that every special need has its own unique features, these difficulties which parents experience may vary with respect to the type of special needs. Previous researches addressed how mothers are affected by the challenges of raising a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). To date, the studies have not covered the comparison between parenting children with ASDs, children with learning disabilities and children with emotional problems, in terms of parental stress and style.

Objectives: In this study, we are interested in comparisons between three groups of parents in parental stress and style. These groups are defined with respect to the children’s diagnoses: (1) parents of children with ASDs, (2) parents of children with learning disabilities and (3) parents of children with emotional problems. Moreover, we focus on whether mothers and fathers differ in terms of parental stress and attitude within each group.

Methods: We examined 228 parents (114 mothers and 114 fathers) using the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (Abidin, 1995), the Parental Style Questionnaire (Bornstein et al., 1996), and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (Derogatis & Lazarus, 1994).

Results: We found that the level of stress of fathers, related to some of the basic behavioral characteristics of children that make them easy or difficult to manage, was affected by the type of diagnosis of children. In addition, focusing on gender differences within each group of parents, we found statistically significant results within several scales of the Parenting Style Questionnaire. Interestingly, the gender difference was emerged in the Parenting Stress Index only between mothers and fathers of children with learning disabilities.

Conclusions: These findings highlight both similarities and differences between parents within three groups defined with respect to the children’s diagnoses and also between mothers and fathers within each group. Results suggest the consideration these similarities and differences, and the importance of specific parental intervention programs.