The relations among hardiness, coping, autism symptoms, parenting stress, and parent psychopathology among parents of children with autism

Parenting an autistic child is undoubtedly challenging and is likely a source of stress that may lead to a number of negative outcomes such as symptoms of anxiety and depression among parents. Specific characteristics of autism, such as language and social impairments and cognitive inconsistencies, make coping with an autistic child particularly difficult. However, not all parents of autistic children exhibit symptoms or even report experiencing substantial amounts of stress. The focus of this researcher is on the characteristics of parents that are related to their success in coping with their child with autism. In particular, the coping styles of the parent, as well as their levels of hardiness, are thought to be crucial individual difference variables for understanding parents' abilities to adapt to their child. In this study, I hypothesized that levels of parental hardiness would moderate the relation between coping strategies and general negative outcomes (i.e., parent stress and psychopathology). Also, I hypothesized that child autism symptoms would moderate the relation between coping strategies and negative outcomes. At a broad level, neither of the hypotheses were supported by the data. However, when more specific aspects of negative outcomes were considered separately, some support was found for several models of the parental coping and stress response. Specifically, parental hardiness moderated the relation between problem-focused coping and attachment. Also, the child's degree of stereotyped behaviors moderated the relation between socially-focused coping and parent isolation as well as the relation between meaning-focused coping and attachment. Finally, among a smaller sample of mothers of autistic boys under the age of 18, stereotyped behaviors moderated the relation between problem-focused coping and overall psychopathology among the mothers. In conclusion, these results provide initial support for several important relations among coping, hardiness, specific negative outcomes, and symptoms of autism. Further study and replication of these findings are warranted.