Quality of Life, Parental Stress & Perceived Social Support Among Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

This Research study aims to investigate the Quality of life, Parental stress and Perceived social support among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. This was Ex-post facto research design followed by between group research designs would be utilized in studying the relationship between the Quality of life, Parental stress and Perceived social support among parents of children with autistic disorder and to understand the differences between the parents on psychological attributes. The sample of the study consists of 40 parents. The participants enrolled in the study included 40 biological parents (23 fathers; 17 mothers) those who are residing in Bangalore, India. Quality of life was determined using WHOQOL-BREF; Parental stress was determined using Parental Stress Scale of Berry and Jones; Perceived social support was determined using Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) of Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley. The Independent t-test results revealed there is no significant difference on the mean scores of quality of life between fathers and mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder, that there is no significant difference on the mean scores of parental stress between fathers and mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder, and also there is a significant difference on the mean scores of perceived social support between fathers and mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder. Pearson product moment correlation results revealed that there is highly significant negative correlation between quality of life and parental stress among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder, there is a highly significant positive correlation quality of life and perceived social support among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder.