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Stress, Coping, and Quality of Life in Families with a Child with ASD Living Regionally

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Abstract

Objectives

The present study aimed to explore whether regionality is associated with differing stress levels, coping, QOL and daily routines for parents and families of a child with ASD (aged 2–18 years) in Western Australia using validated outcome measures and compare the stress levels and QOL of this group to population norms.

Methods

A sample of 278 families living in Western Australia who have a child or adolescent (2–18 years old) with a clinical diagnosis of ASD participated in a cross-sectional survey. Multivariate logistic regression modelling was conducted to determine key factors associated between regionality and demographic variables, quality of life, coping styles, time use, and stress levels.

Results

Parents living in low densely populated areas were more likely to adopt avoidant coping mechanisms, compared to those living in densely populated areas. Fathers with children on the autism spectrum were less likely to be educated above diploma level in regional and remote areas. Stress, QOL or daily routines did not differ by regionality; however, the total sample (i.e., parents from both LDP and DP areas) experienced significantly higher levels of stress and lower QOL when compared to the general population.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that despite having higher levels of stress and lower QOL compared to the general population, residing in a geographically LDP area in Western Australia has a small association on preferred coping style preference and has no association on stress levels, QOL or daily routines for parents who have a child with ASD.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support of the South West Autism Group (SWAN), the Telethon Kids Institute, and the parents whose participation made this study possible.

Author Contributions

D.P. conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the measurement, performed the statistical analysis, interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript; R.C. participated in the design and coordination, assisted with statistical analysis and interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript; H.L. participated in the design and coordination of the study, and interpretation of the data; T.F. conceived of the study and participated in its design and coordination, and S.V. conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, assisted with statistical analysis and interpretation of the data.

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Lishman Health Foundation for funding this research project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Occupational Therapy, Social Work and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Dave Parsons, Reinie Cordier, Hoe Lee, Torbjorn Falkmer & Sharmila Vaz

  2. Department of Special Needs Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Reinie Cordier

  3. Department of Medicine and Health Sciences (IHM) and Pain and Rehabilitation Centre, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Torbjorn Falkmer

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  1. Dave Parsons
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  2. Reinie Cordier
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  3. Hoe Lee
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Correspondence to Dave Parsons.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (Curtin University Human Ethics Committee; Approval: HR123/2014) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Parsons, D., Cordier, R., Lee, H. et al. Stress, Coping, and Quality of Life in Families with a Child with ASD Living Regionally. J Child Fam Stud 29, 546–558 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01585-4

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