Examining the Relationships among Optimism, Resilience, and Parenting Stress of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorde

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder and children diagnosed with this disorder have persistent deficits in multiple important areas. Parents of children with ASD are reported with an increased level of parenting stress than parents of children with typical development. Interestingly, some parents are able to cope with their children with significant developmental problems much more readily than others. Some researchers have tried to understand families of children with ASD from a positive psychology perspective. Optimism and resilience are two variables that may be able to explain why some parents are able to take care of a child with disability more readily than others. However, both optimism and resilience have not been thoroughly studied in parents of children with ASD. The purpose of this quantitative survey study using a cross-section, correlational method was to examine the relationships among optimism, resilience, and parenting stress as well as the role of resilience in mediating the relationship between optimism and parenting stress of parents of children with ASD. Findings gathered from 88 fathers and mothers of preschool children with ASD in Hong Kong indicated positive correlation between optimism and resilience (r = .528, p< .01), negative correlations between resilience and parenting stress (r = -.579, p< .01), optimism and parenting stress ( r = -.486, p< .01), and a significant partial mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between optimism and parenting stress. These data suggested that parents of children with ASD could benefit from intervention programs with the focus on enhancing parents' levels of optimism and resilience. Future research could focus on evaluating the effectiveness of these positive psychology based intervention programs as well as parents of children with ASD from a wider age range and different cultures and ethnicities.