"Comparison of Parenting Related Stress and Depression Symptoms in Mothers of Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders(ASD)

When a child has a developmental disability, the parenthood stress can be onerous. Research on the parenting stress has addressed the parenting stress differences between children families with and without disabilities. The purpose of the current research was to examine the comparison of parenting related stress and depression symptoms in mothers of children recently diagnosed with and without autism spectrum disorders. In this semi-experimental study that was performed using both experiment and control groups, 15 mothers of children was recruited (biological mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders aged 6 years who’s diagnosed were made less than 5 months prior to study) and was compared with 15 mothers of children without autism spectrum disorders were selected with using of available sampling method and randomly were replaced into two experimental and control groups. Parents completed a packet of questionnaire measuring demographics, parenting stress and depression. Data were analyzed using of descriptive statistics, t-test method. Results of t tests showed significant differences between the two groups for two variables (p<0.001). Mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder generally report significantly higher levels of stress and depression than mothers of children without autism spectrum disorder. According to the findings of the present study, the investigation of parenting related stress and depression in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder can provide valuable implications for clinicians to target at the predictors when providing assessment and intervention for children with ASD to improve their health parent.