Vanderbilt University, USA.
Autism. 2014 Feb;18(2):194-8. doi: 10.1177/1362361312458039. Epub 2012 Sep 17.
Mothers of children with autism report higher levels of depression than mothers of children with other developmental disabilities. We explored the relations between child characteristics of diagnostic severity and problem behaviors, parenting stress, relationship quality, and depressive symptoms in 70 mothers of young children with autism. We hypothesized that relationship quality and parenting stress would relate to maternal depression beyond contributions of child characteristics. Multiple regression analysis revealed a main effect of parenting stress above and beyond child problem behaviors and autism severity. A significant interaction emerged, with relationship quality buffering the effect of parenting stress on depression. Results suggest that the relation between child problem behaviors and maternal depression should be considered in conjunction with other measures of marriage and family stress. Relationship quality and parenting stress may also represent important factors to be explicitly considered within intervention paradigms for young children with autism spectrum disorders.
自闭症儿童的母亲比其他发育障碍儿童的母亲报告更高水平的抑郁。我们探索了 70 名自闭症幼儿母亲的孩子的诊断严重程度和问题行为、育儿压力、关系质量和抑郁症状之间的关系。我们假设,关系质量和育儿压力对母亲抑郁的影响超出了孩子特征的贡献。多元回归分析显示,育儿压力对抑郁的影响超过了孩子问题行为和自闭症严重程度的主要影响。出现了一个显著的相互作用,关系质量缓冲了育儿压力对抑郁的影响。研究结果表明,在考虑儿童问题行为与母亲抑郁之间的关系时,还应考虑婚姻和家庭压力的其他衡量标准。关系质量和育儿压力也可能是自闭症谱系障碍幼儿干预模式中需要明确考虑的重要因素。