Parental Distress and Parenting Behavior in Families of Preschool Children with and Without ASD: Spillover and Buffering.

The study used a single timepoint, so it cannot show that parental distress causes negative parenting or that reducing distress will change parenting. Parenting behavior and distress were measured only by parent report, and the authors note that observed parenting studies are needed. Families of children with ASD were recruited for a larger stress-reduction trial, so the findings may not apply to parents with lower distress or parents not seeking services. Some families did not provide negative parenting data, and those families had significantly lower parent education, which may limit generalizability. The ASD and neurotypical groups differed in race or ethnicity, caregiver education, child gender, and child intellectual functioning, even though some variables were controlled in analyses. The distress composite was generally adequate for families of children with ASD, but parenting stress and emotion dysregulation were not significantly associated in that group.

The authors have no relevant financial or nonfinancial interests to disclose.

Do not conclude that reducing parental distress will improve parenting behavior. This study measured associations at a single timepoint and did not test an intervention, so it cannot show that distress reduction changes negative or positive parenting.