Parental Mental Health: The Role of Parental Attachment to Their Child with ASD
Research suggests that parents of children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) experience higher levels of stress than both those of typically developing children and children with other developmental disabilities. Parental stress may spill over into additional domains of parental competence, impairing parental mental health, and parents’ ability to bond with their child. Little research has addressed the impact of the parent-child bond on parental stress. The current study used data from the Mindful Awareness for Parenting Stress project (MAPS) at Loma Linda University to further our understanding of parents’ attachment to the child and parental stress examining whether parental attachment is a protective factor against parental stress. The proposed study included 39 parents of children with ASD. The results suggest that there were significant changes in parental stress, parent’s ability to cope with stress, and in the area of the parent-child relationship. Future studies should place importance on identifying and targeting those parents with lower attachment, as they experienced higher gains across the intervention.
Clinical Psychology, Psychology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Parents of autistic children -- Psychology; Children with autism spectrum disorders -- Family relationships; Attachment behavior, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Gillian Autism Rating Scale, Hierarchical Linear Modeling, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindful Awareness Parenting Stress
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