Abstract
Mothers of 60 children with autism participated in this study to measure the effects of social support and hardiness on the women's responses to the stressful demands of raising a child with a disability. MANOVA analysis indicated a significant main effect for hardiness, Wilks' lambda=.859, approx. F(2, 55)=4.494, p<.02. There were no main effects for social support, or for the interaction of social support and hardiness. In regression analyses, the best combination of predictors of depressive symptoms were the Commitment dimension on the Hardiness Questionnaire and the total score on the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List social support inventory, mult. R=.783, p<.001. The best predictor of somatic complaints was total Hardiness score, mult. R=.698, p<.01. There was a significant correlation between hardiness and perceived social support, r(57)=−.67, p<.001. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship between perceived social support and hardiness and the potential buffering effect of these dimensions.
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This paper is based upon the first author's master's thesis supervised by the second author, submitted to Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Our thanks to Nancy Fagley and Donald R. Peterson for their constructive comments on the thesis committee. Thanks also to the mothers who gave so graciously of their time and to Jan S. Handleman and David Holmes who helped us reach the participants. Thanks also to Salvadore Maddi for providing access to normative data on the Hardiness test.
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Gill, M.J., Harris, S.L. Hardiness and social support as predictors of psychological discomfort in mothers of children with autism. J Autism Dev Disord 21, 407–416 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02206867
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02206867