Families of Autistic Children: Psychological Functioning of Mothers

Abstract

Abstract Compared mothers of 20 autistic, 20 Down syndrome, and 20 developmentally normal children matched on several pertinent demographic variables. Results revealed that mothers of autistic children reported less parenting competence, less marital satisfaction, more family cohesion, and less family adaptability than mothers in the other two groups. Mothers of both autistic and Down syndrome children reported more disrupted planning, caretaker burden, family burden, and frequent use of self-blame as a coping strategy than did mothers of developmentally normal children. The practical implications of these findings are discussed, particularly those pertaining to low parenting competence and the use of self-blame as a coping strategy.