Comparison of Parenting Stress and Psychological Distress in Mothers of Children with Autism Disorder and Developmental Delay

Background and Mothers of children with autism are faced with challenges that increase stress and emotional symptoms in them. The present study was conducted to study the parental stress and psychological distress of the mothers of children with autism and developmental delay.
The research design was descriptive and causal-comparative. The statistical population included all mothers of children aged 6-11 years with autism disorder referring to educational and rehabilitation centers and students with special needs in Tabriz city during the academic year 2014-2015. 100 of Mothers (50 mother of child with autism and 50 mother of child with developmental delay) were selected using convenience sampling method. The aberrant behavior checklist (1986), short form of mental symptoms test (1973), adaptive behavior scale (1984), and parents stress index (1967), completed by mothers. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance.
The results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed that there is a significant difference between the mothers of children with autism and children with developmental delay in both dependent variables (P The findings of this study showed that parenting stress and psychological distress among mothers of children with autism are more than those with delayed developmental children, which may be due to behavioral problems and low adaptive functions among autistic children, which should be considered.