Emerson College, USA.
Autism. 2021 Jul;25(5):1395-1408. doi: 10.1177/1362361321990931. Epub 2021 Apr 16.
Parents of children with autism experience enormous challenges managing the complex needs of caring for their children. This includes coordinating multiple and complex therapies and acting as partners in treatment. Parenting self-efficacy is the confidence a person has in their ability to manage the tasks that are part of raising a child. People who have more confidence, or greater parenting self-efficacy, often feel less stressed and are more able to manage the demands of family life. This is particularly important for parents with children who have autism spectrum disorder, since they experience more parenting pressures. Although a lot is known about parenting self-efficacy in parents of neurotypical children, we do not know enough about how to help parents of children with autism spectrum disorder develop greater parenting self-efficacy.This study shows that parents gain a greater sense of parenting self-efficacy when they feel more involved in their child's therapy and are more satisfied with the training they receive as part of these therapies. We also find that feeling pressure related to being a caregiver of a child with autism spectrum disorder can undermine autism-specific parenting self-efficacy. However, parents' sense of confidence was not limited by the severity of their child's symptoms.The results suggest that there is an opportunity to help parents develop a greater sense of confidence in their ability to manage the complexities of raising a child with autism spectrum disorder by helping them feel more involved in treatment and by creating intervention-related training experiences that are more satisfying. Providers might also help by taking time to address the challenges and pressures that parents are experiencing, and helping them find ways to deal with these challenges. We suggest that there needs to be more research exploring how providers can best design interventions that support autism-specific parenting self-efficacy as a way of improving parental and child well-being.
自闭症儿童的父母在照顾孩子的复杂需求方面面临巨大挑战。这包括协调多种复杂的治疗方法，并作为治疗的合作伙伴。育儿自我效能感是一个人对自己管理抚养孩子的任务的能力的信心。信心更强或育儿自我效能感更高的人通常感到压力较小，更能够应对家庭生活的需求。对于患有自闭症谱系障碍的儿童的父母来说，这一点尤其重要，因为他们面临更多的育儿压力。尽管我们对神经典型儿童的父母的育儿自我效能感有很多了解，但我们还不太了解如何帮助自闭症谱系障碍儿童的父母增强育儿自我效能感。这项研究表明，当父母感到自己更能参与孩子的治疗，并对作为这些治疗一部分所接受的培训感到更满意时，他们会获得更大的育儿自我效能感。我们还发现，作为自闭症儿童的照顾者感到压力会破坏自闭症特定的育儿自我效能感。然而，父母的信心感并不受其孩子自闭症症状严重程度的限制。
研究结果表明，通过帮助父母感到自己更能参与治疗，并创造更令人满意的干预相关培训体验，为父母提供机会帮助他们发展出更强大的信心，让他们有信心应对养育自闭症儿童的复杂性。提供者还可以通过花时间解决父母正在经历的挑战和压力，并帮助他们找到应对这些挑战的方法来提供帮助。我们认为，需要进行更多的研究来探讨提供者如何最好地设计干预措施，以支持自闭症特定的育儿自我效能感，从而改善父母和孩子的健康。
