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Mindfulness and Stress Among Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in China

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Abstract

Parenting a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be tremendously challenging. It is important to identify factors associated with parenting stress. This study examined the indirect effect of parental dispositional mindfulness on their anxiety and depressive symptoms and family quality of life (FQOL) through mindful parenting and then parenting stress. Seventy-nine Chinese parents (24.1% fathers) of children with ASD aged 3–13 years completed self-report questionnaires. Results indicated that higher dispositional mindfulness was associated with higher mindful parenting, which was related to lower parenting stress, and further related to lower anxiety and depressive symptoms and higher FQOL. The findings provide valuable insight into the potential pathways through which general mindfulness and mindful parenting may positively impact parental outcomes.

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Acknowledgments

This research project was funded by Beijing Social Science16SRB012.

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  1. Hui Wang and Qiandong Wang are contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Hui Wang, Qiandong Wang & Zhuo Rachel Han

  2. Department of Special Education, Education Research Center for Children With ASD, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Rm 408, YingDong Building, Xin Jie Kou Wai Da Jie #19, Beijing, China

    Xiaoyi Hu

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HW analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. QW assisted with the data analyses and revised the manuscript. XH designed the study and revised the final manuscript. ZRH designed and executed the study and collaborated in the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xiaoyi Hu.

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Wang, H., Wang, Q., Hu, X. et al. Mindfulness and Stress Among Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in China. J Autism Dev Disord 52, 2035–2045 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05011-x

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