Impact on Parents’ Psychological Well-Being of Preschool Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Indian Context

Abstract

The present study states that parents of autistic children are more stressed than parents of typically developing children. Although there is a dearth of studies regarding the predicting factors leading to stress within this population. The core aim of this study was to examine the factors like severity of autistic symptoms, cognitive abilities, perceived limit settings skills, behavioural, and emotional issues on parental stress level in the given sample of maternal and paternal groups of preschool children with ASD when compared to the normal group of children. Results show that parents who are nurturing children diagnosed with ASD tend to experience elevated levels of psychological stress than parents taking care of normal children. The present study also revealed a notable finding that there are few behaviour and emotional aspect-related variables that has as a significant effect on triggering parental psychological stress. Overall, the conclusion of the study is that maladaptive behaviours of ASD children affect the psychological well-being of parents. Therefore, planned intervention programs focusing on parents are crucial to providing a better intervention plan for children which includes mental well-being of parents as well so that the parents' psychological status doesn’t go unnoticed and the child also has a better intervention outcome.