Sartor Teresa, Sons Sarah, Kuhn Jörg-Tobias, Tröster Heinrich
Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany.
Front Rehabil Sci. 2023 Oct 6;4:1240977. doi: 10.3389/fresc.2023.1240977. eCollection 2023.
Parents to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are exposed to numerous demands in their daily lives and exhibit high levels of stress. The present study aims to find out which coping resources are mediators that help parents cope with these demands and which of those coping resources amplify or reduce stress arising from the demands. Studies often only focus on the connection between coping resources and stress without taking the demands into account at the same time.
For this reason, a mediation model was set up to answer the research question. Data from a German questionnaire survey with = 266 parents who have children with ASD (two to 23 years old) were used. Subjectively perceived demands in everyday life (scale "Parental demands in everyday life"), parental stress ("Parental Stress Inventory", based on Abidin's parenting stress model) and the following coping resources were collected: parental self-efficacy beliefs ("Parents' sense of competence questionnaire"), available social support of parents (scale "Availability of social support") and parental coping strategies (German version of the Brief COPE).
An exploratory factor analysis revealed four mediators: dysfunctional coping, functional coping, social support, and self-efficacy. The use of dysfunctional behavior and parental self-efficacy were found to be significant mediators that mediated between daily demands and parental stress. A direct effect of demands on parental stress was also found, implying partial mediation. The two factors of functional coping and support were not found to be significant mediators.
Key findings indicate that parental stress resulting from the daily demands of parenting children with ASD can be reduced by high parental self-efficacy and increased by dysfunctional coping. For practice, it can be deduced that dysfunctional coping strategies of parents to children with ASD should be reduced and parental self-efficacy should be strengthened in order to reduce stress which arises from the multiple demands in everyday life.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患儿的家长在日常生活中面临诸多需求，压力水平较高。本研究旨在找出哪些应对资源是帮助家长应对这些需求的中介因素，以及哪些应对资源会放大或减轻因这些需求而产生的压力。以往研究往往只关注应对资源与压力之间的联系，而没有同时考虑需求因素。
因此，建立了一个中介模型来回答该研究问题。使用了来自德国一项问卷调查的数据，该调查有266名患有ASD（2至23岁）孩子的家长参与。收集了日常生活中主观感受到的需求（“日常生活中的父母需求”量表）、父母压力（基于阿比丁养育压力模型的“父母压力量表”）以及以下应对资源：父母自我效能信念（“父母能力感问卷”）、父母可获得的社会支持（“社会支持的可获得性”量表）和父母应对策略（简版应对量表的德文版）。
探索性因素分析揭示了四个中介因素：功能失调性应对、功能性应对、社会支持和自我效能。功能失调性行为的使用和父母自我效能被发现是在日常需求和父母压力之间起中介作用的显著中介因素。还发现需求对父母压力有直接影响，这意味着存在部分中介作用。功能性应对和支持这两个因素未被发现是显著的中介因素。
主要研究结果表明，较高的父母自我效能可以减轻因养育ASD患儿的日常需求而产生的父母压力，而功能失调性应对则会增加这种压力。对于实践而言，可以推断出应减少ASD患儿家长的功能失调性应对策略，并增强父母自我效能，以减轻日常生活中多种需求所产生的压力。
