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Coping strategies of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
To deal with stress, parents of children with ASD use coping strategies that help to tackle the challenging situations of raising their child. This systematic review examines parental coping strategy's questionnaires, factors which influence these coping strategies, interactions between these strategies and perceived stress and their impact on parental quality of life. According to PRISMA guidelines, an electronic search was conducted on Medline, PsycInfo and Eric: 156 articles were identified and 11 studies were selected. Many types of self-reported questionnaires were used to assess parental coping strategies. Studies highlighted that parents of a child with ASD used more avoidance strategies and less social support-seeking strategies than those of typical children. Furthermore, problem-focused coping protects parental stress and quality of life, that on the contrary, emotion-focused coping is a risk factor for alteration. Our systematic review illustrates the need to adapt psychoeducational interventions for parents of children with ASD.
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“Vernhet et al. (2019) pointed out the lack of research regarding links between positive or adaptive resources in this group which limits the applicability of most of the current findings in terms of the improvement of parents’ quality of life and adaptive coping.”
From Self-compassion, ego-resiliency, coping with stress and the quality of life of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (2021) · cites this paper as Vernhet et al. (2019)
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“Meta-analysis conducted by Vernhet et al. (2019) revealed that problem-focused coping strategies decreased stress levels experienced by parents of children with ASD, while emotion-oriented strategies acted conversely being associated with more stress and depressive symptoms.”
From Self-compassion, ego-resiliency, coping with stress and the quality of life of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (2021) · cites this paper as Vernhet et al. (2019)
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“Contrastingly, when raising a child with ASD, it is important not only to address the child ’ s behavioral and communication characteristics, but also to support parents in selecting and implementing appropriate coping strategies in everyday parenting situations (Vernhet et al., 2019).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Vernhet, C., Dellapiazza, F., Blanc, N., Cousson-Gélie, F., Miot, S., Roeyers, H., & Baghdadli, A.
- Affiliations
- Inserm (FR)
- Université de Montpellier (FR)
- Ghent University (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Vernhet, Christelle
- Venue
- European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- Published
- 2018-06-18
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 747-758
- ISSN
- 1018-8827 (ISSN-L)
- 1435-165X
- OpenAlex
- W2809010317
- Cited by
- 175
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 6
- FWCI
- 1.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- biblio.ugent.be
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Family and Disability Support Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, parental coping strategies, parental stress, perceived stress, parental quality of life, problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, avoidance coping, social support seeking, parents of children with disabilities, psychoeducational intervention
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Child, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Parent-Child Relations, Parents, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Support
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