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Predictors of Parenting Stress in Children Referred for an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnostic Evaluation

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Abstract

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) report significantly higher stress than parents of children with other developmental disorders. Symptoms that overlap with the autism spectrum are often present in other developmental disorders, which could significantly increase parenting stress. Additionally, the severity of ASD symptoms within a group of children with ASD can greatly vary. In the present study, problem behaviors, cognitive and adaptive functioning, and parenting stress were examined in a group of 40 children aged 2–5 years who were referred for an autism evaluation. The children presented with varying levels of symptoms often associated with ASD, and some met criteria for an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. This approach allowed for both categorical and dimensional consideration of ASD-associated symptoms and the relation to parenting stress in children with and without autism. When examined based on ultimate clinical diagnosis of ASD or non-ASD, child behavior problems and parenting stress were similar across groups. Clinician-based autism severity ratings (based on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule) did not significantly predict parenting stress; however, parental report of the severity of ASD-associated symptoms (from the Social Responsiveness Scale) showed a significant relation to stress. Cognitive ability did not uniquely contribute to stress. Problem behaviors as assessed by the Child Behavior Checklist accounted for the largest proportion of the variance in parenting stress; adaptive behaviors and severity of parent- or clinician-rated autism-associated symptoms did not uniquely contribute above and beyond problem behaviors. Parents who reported more behavior problems or more autism-associated symptoms reported higher parenting stress. Clinical applications and the need for more research on parenting stress and problem behaviors in children displaying autism symptomatology are highlighted.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by funds from Sigma Xi and a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Graduate School Research Committee Award. The authors would like to thank the participants and their families for their valuable contribution to the research. The authors would also like to thank all research personnel at the Child Neurodevelopment Research Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for their help with data collection, especially Michael Gaffrey, Ph.D.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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  1. University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Natalie G. Brei, G. Nathanael Schwarz & Bonita P. Klein-Tasman

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  1. Natalie G. Brei
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  2. G. Nathanael Schwarz
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Correspondence to Natalie G. Brei.

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Brei, N.G., Schwarz, G.N. & Klein-Tasman, B.P. Predictors of Parenting Stress in Children Referred for an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnostic Evaluation. J Dev Phys Disabil 27, 617–635 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-015-9439-z

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