Stress in Parents of Children with Autism: A Malaysian Experience
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31436/id.v27iS%20I%20%232.1468Abstract
This study examines differences in parental stress between parents
of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children (n=21) and Typically Developed
(TD) children (n=41) in Malaysia. This study also compares the ages of parents
of ASD children with parents of TD children with stress as a variable in these
parents. Parents completed the Parental Stress Index (brief Malay version) and
a socio-demographic questionnaire. Parents with ASD children were found to
be significantly more stressed compared to parents of TD children (p<0.001).
Significant scores were also found in the Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction
(P-CDI) sub-scale (p<0.001) as well as Difficult Child (DC) and Parental
Distress (PD) sub-scales with lower significance (p<0.05). Results also indicate
that the 30-35-year-old age group among ASD parents was significantly found
to be more stressed compared with parents of TD children of the same ages.
Implications of the findings regarding support and intervention for families
with ASD are also discussed.