Journal Article

The Cold Shoulder or a Shoulder to Cry on? Mechanisms of Formal and Informal Social Support in the ASD Parenting Context

Landon, Jason, Meads Jake, Goedeke Sonja, Shepherd, Daniel

2020

Overview

The underlying mechanisms by which social support exerts its (typically) positive effects on parental wellbeing are still being investigated in the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) context. Parents (n = 674) of a child with ASD responded to questions probing parenting stress, parent psychological health, their child’s ASD symptoms, and the types of social supports they were currently utilising. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses examined whether social support moderated or mediated (or neither) the relationships between: (a) parent-rated child ASD symptoms and parenting stress, and (b) parenting stress and parent psychological health. The main findings were that none of the mediating models reached statistical significance, while 7/20 moderation analyses were significant, though significance was dependent upon how social support was operationalised.

• Publisher: Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Autism / Autism Spectrum Disorders / Autistic children / Behavior Problems / Caring / Child Rearing / Children / Emotional Response / Mathematical models / Mental health / Moderation / Multiple Regression Analysis / Parent Responsibility / Parent-child relations / Parental stress / Parents & parenting / Physical Health / Predictor Variables / Psychological distress / Psychological Patterns / Psychological well being / Schematic Studies / Shoulder / Social interactions / Social Networks / Social support / Statistical analysis / Statistical significance / Stress / Symptoms / Symptoms (Individual Disorders) / Well being