Profiles of the parenting experience in families of autistic children.
Jessica L Greenlee, Emily Hickey, Claire R Stelter and 2 others
PMID 36602200WHAT IT FOUND
Most parents of autistic children report average or adaptive parenting experiences.
A distinct subgroup, including more fathers than expected, reports high stress and low competence. Children in these distressed families show more behavioral and autism symptoms, but the study cannot prove parenting causes these challenges.
Key findings
01Parenting experiences are not uniform; most mothers (83.3%) and fathers (71%) fall into adaptive or average profiles, while a smaller group reports high stress and low competence.
02Children of parents in the 'distressed' profile were rated as having more severe autism symptoms and more behavioral and emotional challenges than children of parents in adaptive profiles.
03Within families, having at least one parent in the adaptive profile was associated with better child outcomes, with no significant difference between families where both parents were adaptive versus only one.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if distressed parenting leads to worse child symptoms or if children with more severe symptoms cause parental distress. The sample was primarily Caucasian and middle-to-high income, limiting generalizability to more diverse populations. All data relied on parent self-report, which may introduce bias (e.g., a stressed parent might rate their child's behavior more negatively). There was no comparison group of parents without autistic children or parents of children with other disabilities.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by the NIH.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that changing parenting style will directly reduce a child's autism symptoms. The study shows an association, but the direction of influence is unknown; distressed parenting may be a result of caring for a child with more severe challenges, not the cause.