Parenting stress in caregivers of young children with ASD concerns prior to a formal diagnosis
Abstract
Robust findings demonstrate that parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience high levels of parenting stress that are associated with negative outcomes for families. Although the majority of research on parenting stress has focused on parents of children with an existing diagnosis, parents of young children with concerns about ASD‐related behaviors also face many unique challenges before the time of diagnosis. However, no study to date has examined patterns of parenting stress among parents of children with ASD concerns prior to a formal ASD diagnosis. Therefore, the current study investigated longitudinal trajectories of parenting stress among parents of young children with ASD concerns compared to parents of children with non‐ASD developmental concerns (e.g., language delay), and parents of children with no developmental concerns. Known predictors of parenting stress were also examined. Results from multilevel model analyses revealed that parents of children with ASD concerns experienced consistently higher levels of parenting stress across early child development compared to parents of children with non‐ASD developmental concerns and those with no concerns. Additionally, parenting efficacy, psychological functioning, social satisfaction, and child social communication behaviors predicted levels of parenting stress for all parents. Autism Res 2020, 13: 82–92 . © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay Summary: This study examined parenting stress across time among parents of young children with ASD concerns before receiving a diagnosis. Parents of children with ASD concerns reported consistently higher levels of parenting stress compared to parents of children with other developmental concerns and parents of children with no concerns. Also, ASD concerns predicted parenting stress in addition to other parent and child predictors of parenting stress. These findings highlight the need to better support families before an ASD diagnosis.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Child social functioning in particular predicts increased parenting stress.
“Among the various domains of child functioning, child social functioning in particular has been found to predict increased parenting stress, which may partially explain the difference in reported parenting stress between parents with autism-specific and other developmental concerns for their child (Davis & Carter, 2008; DesChamps et al., 2020).”
From Parenting Stress, Child Social Functioning, and Part C Early Intervention in Predominantly Low-Income Families of Children With or at High Risk for Developmental Delay From Minoritized Racial and Ethnic Groups (2023) · cites this paper as DesChamps et al., 2020
The level of parenting stress found in our study is similar to prior findings of parenting stress levels among parents with developmental concerns aside from autism.
“The level of parenting stress found in our study is similar to prior findings of parenting stress levels among parents with developmental concerns aside from autism (DesChamps et al., 2020)”
From Parenting Stress, Child Social Functioning, and Part C Early Intervention in Predominantly Low-Income Families of Children With or at High Risk for Developmental Delay From Minoritized Racial and Ethnic Groups (2023) · cites this paper as DesChamps et al., 2020
The level of parenting stress found in our study is substantially lower than samples of children with autism diagnoses or undiagnosed autism concerns.
“and substantially lower than samples of children with autism diagnoses or undiagnosed autism concerns (DesChamps et al., 2020; Huang et al., 2014; Valicenti-McDermott et al., 2015).”
From Parenting Stress, Child Social Functioning, and Part C Early Intervention in Predominantly Low-Income Families of Children With or at High Risk for Developmental Delay From Minoritized Racial and Ethnic Groups (2023) · cites this paper as DesChamps et al., 2020
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 72 · Cited by 98
- Authors
- DesChamps, T. D., Ibañez, L. V., Edmunds, S. R., Dick, C. C., & Stone, W. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- DesChamps, Trent D.
- Stone, Wendy L.
- Venue
- Autism Research
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-10-08
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 82-92
- ISSN
- 1939-3792 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-3806
- OpenAlex
- W2979878696
- Cited by
- 98
- References
- 72
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 8.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Autism Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH104302‐01)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Family and Disability Support Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
- Keywords
- parental stress, autism spectrum disorder, pre-diagnosis, young children, developmental difficulties, language delay, parental self-efficacy, social satisfaction, longitudinal trajectories, family support
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Adult, Child Behavior, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Infant, Male, Middle Aged, Parents, Stress, Psychological, Parenting, Caregivers, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
