Department of Psychology, College of Health Professions, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Center for Neuropsychology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 Sep;53(9):3356-3368. doi: 10.1007/s10803-022-05627-7. Epub 2022 Jun 24.
Children with autism spectrum disorder present with challenging behaviors that can impact caregivers by increasing parental perceived stress and risk for depression. However, positive coping strategies have also been identified as protective factors for parents of children with ASD. The present study examined parental perceived daily stressors and positive coping strategies (i.e., benefit finding) as mediators to depression for parents of children with ASD. A latent profile analysis identified three classes of behavior severity for children with ASD. Across all classes, higher levels of perceived daily stressors predicted increased parental depression, while benefit finding predicted lower parental depression. Results support interventions that increase positive coping strategies to decrease levels of depression in parents of children with ASD.
自闭症谱系障碍儿童表现出具有挑战性的行为，这些行为会通过增加父母的感知压力和抑郁风险来影响照顾者。然而，积极的应对策略也被确定为自闭症谱系障碍儿童父母的保护因素。本研究考察了父母对自闭症谱系障碍儿童日常压力源和积极应对策略（即发现益处）的感知，作为父母抑郁的中介。潜在剖面分析确定了自闭症谱系障碍儿童行为严重程度的三个类别。在所有类别中，感知到的日常压力源水平越高，父母的抑郁程度就越高，而发现益处则预示着父母的抑郁程度较低。研究结果支持采取干预措施，增加积极的应对策略，以降低自闭症谱系障碍儿童父母的抑郁水平。
