Challenging Behavior and Parental Depression: The Effects of Everyday Stressors and Benefit Finding for Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Vitale, Sarah Rose; Schneider, Hoa Lam; Gardner, Lauren; Alessandri, Michael; Marker, Craig D.

doi:10.1007/s10803-022-05627-7

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Lastly, a significant difference was seen in the experience of caregiving strain and anxiety reported by mothers and fathers, such that mothers reported higher levels of caregiving strain and anxiety than did fathers. These findings are consistent with previous studies reporting significantly higher levels of caregiver strain and anxiety for mother than fathers ( Hastings, 2003 ; Dabrowska and Pisula, 2010 ; Foody et al, 2015 ; Vitale et al, 2022 ). One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that mothers tend to be more involved in the day-to-day management of family life ( Konstantareas and Homaditis, 1992 ; Benson et al, 2008 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Examining indicators of psychosocial risk and resilience in parents of autistic children

Nunnally

Factor

Sturm

et al. 2023

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundParents of autistic children experience increased levels of caregiver strain and adverse mental health outcomes, even in comparison to parents of children with other neurodevelopmental disabilities. Previous studies have largely attributed these increased levels of mental health concerns to their child behavioral concerns and autism symptomatology, but less attention has been given to other potential child factors, such as child adaptive functioning. Additionally, little is known about potential protective factors, such as parents’ emotion regulation (ER) abilities, that may ameliorate the experience of caregiver strain, anxiety, and depression.ObjectiveThe current study examined the impact of child characteristics (restricted and repetitive behaviors, adaptive functioning and behavioral concerns) on parent mental health outcomes (caregiver strain, anxiety, depression and wellbeing). Additionally, we explore parents’ ER abilities as a moderator of the impact of child characteristic on parents’ mental health outcomes.ResultsResults of linear mixed effect models indicated a significant relationship between parents’ ER abilities and all four parent outcomes. Additionally, children’s adaptive functioning abilities and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) were significant predictors of caregiving strain. Parents’ ER abilities were a significant moderator of the effect of children’s repetitive behaviors and adaptive functioning challenges on caregiver strain, such that better ER abilities mitigated the impact of child clinical factors on caregiver strain. Finally, a significant difference was detected for mothers’ and fathers’ mental health, with mothers reporting higher caregiver strain, and more symptoms of anxiety and depression than did fathers.ConclusionThis study leveraged a large sample of autistic children and their biological parents to examine the relationship between children’s clinical characteristics and parents’ psychological wellbeing. Results indicate that, although parents of autistic children do experience high rates of internalizing mental health concerns that relate to child adaptive functioning and RRBs, parent ER abilities act as a protective factor against parents’ adverse mental health outcomes. Further, mothers in our sample reported significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety, and caregiver strain, as compared with fathers.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Examining indicators of psychosocial risk and resilience in parents of autistic children

Nunnally

Factor

Sturm

et al. 2023

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Personal recovery in the intervention group was considerably facilitated after the intervention. Benefit finding and personal recovery are closely related to each other, and personal recovery is partially regarded as a process that results from benefit finding [ 12 , 34 ]. Therefore, finding similar positive changes in both are reasonable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies suggested that the experience of benefit finding would contribute to further progress in personal recovery among people with mental illness. Particularly, enhancing benefit finding may lead to higher personal recovery as well as subjective well-being and better mental health [ 7 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Therefore, many studies to date have emphasized the significance to facilitate benefit finding, including for people with mental illness [ 8 , 13 , 14 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Preliminary Efficacy of a Program to Facilitate Benefit Finding for People with Mental Illness: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial in Japan

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Benefit finding is a concept that refers to finding positive changes or benefits through negative experiences from stressful life events. The present study aimed to develop a new intervention program to facilitate benefit finding for people with mental illness and examine its feasibility and preliminary efficacy from pilot data. We hypothesized that participants who joined the group-based intervention program would show progress in benefit finding, personal recovery, and well-being, as well as alleviated psychiatric symptoms and functional impairment, compared to participants in the control group. The participants in the intervention group joined in a new program which focuses on (1) cognitive–behavioral stress management and (2) own experiences, including what was found or realized through their lives since the onset of mental illness. The program used a workbook comprised of eight 90-min sessions, with one held every week. Twenty-four were found eligible and provided informed consent to participate in the study. About 46% were males, and the average age was 42.5 years. Around 63% were diagnosed with schizophrenia. We did not find significant differences over time by groups. However, medium to large effects in each scale or at least one subscale (i.e., benefit finding, personal recovery, subjective well-being, and psychiatric symptoms and functional impairment) were observed. Future studies with more participants from various settings would be necessary to exactingly examine the effectiveness of the intervention program.

show abstract

“…For both mothers and fathers, more frequent challenging behaviors of their children are associated with the frequency and intensity of daily stressors, as well as increased depressive symptoms [25]. Aggression is significantly associated with parent/child and medical/legal functional impacts; SIB is associated with a lower quality of life for the child and their family, as well as parent/child and medical/legal functional impacts [26,27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting Problematic Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Medical History and Environmental Data

Ferina,

Kruger,

Kruger

et al. 2023

JPM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), characterized by social, communication, and behavioral abnormalities, affects 1 in 36 children according to the CDC. Several co-occurring conditions are often associated with ASD, including sleep and immune disorders and gastrointestinal (GI) problems. ASD is also associated with sensory sensitivities. Some individuals with ASD exhibit episodes of challenging behaviors that can endanger themselves or others, including aggression and self-injurious behavior (SIB). In this work, we explored the use of artificial intelligence models to predict behavior episodes based on past data of co-occurring conditions and environmental factors for 80 individuals in a residential setting. We found that our models predict occurrences of behavior and non-behavior with accuracies as high as 90% for some individuals, and that environmental, as well as gastrointestinal, factors are notable predictors across the population examined. While more work is needed to examine the underlying connections between the factors and the behaviors, having reasonably accurate predictions for behaviors has the potential to improve the quality of life of some individuals with ASD.

show abstract

Challenging Behavior and Parental Depression: The Effects of Everyday Stressors and Benefit Finding for Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cited by 9 publications

References 57 publications

Examining indicators of psychosocial risk and resilience in parents of autistic children

Examining indicators of psychosocial risk and resilience in parents of autistic children

The Preliminary Efficacy of a Program to Facilitate Benefit Finding for People with Mental Illness: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial in Japan

Predicting Problematic Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Medical History and Environmental Data

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About