The association between parenting behaviours of mothers of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and adolescent and mother characteristics

Abstract

BackgroundStudies on parenting behaviours among parents of adolescents with ASD either used parenting behaviours that were supported in the general population, or specific ASD related parenting behaviours. This study aimed to identify which parenting components underlie parenting behaviours among parents of adolescents with ASD, and how these components relate to adolescent and mother characteristics. Method35 children with ASD and 38 children without ASD (aged 12–16 years old) participated with their mother in this cross-sectional study. Parenting behaviour was measured based on observations. Principal components analyses (PCA) were carried out to construct parenting components. Pearson correlations were calculated for the ASD and General Population Control (GPC) group separately to investigate the relationship between the parenting components and adolescent and mother characteristics. ResultsIn both groups, PCAs on observed parenting behaviours yielded the components Parental Support and Behavioural Control. However, in the ASD group, Negativity was generated as a third cluster. Results indicated that only verbal IQ was significantly correlated with parenting behaviour components. ConclusionsThis study suggests that the framework of parenting behaviours in the general literature is applicable to parents of children with ASD. Furthermore, associations between parenting behaviours and adolescent characteristics were rather modest in the ASD group.