The Role of Parenting Behaviour and Social Support on The Relationship Between Parenting Stress and Behavioural Outcomes of Autistic Children

Abstract

Raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is challenging as the parents face many difficulties. In relation to this, parents with ASD children often experience more parenting stress than parents with typically developing children and other developmental disabilities. Studies have reported that parenting stress influences child behaviour problems; however, there is inconsistent research findings on the relationship. This is mainly due to the role of third variables (i.e., parenting behaviour and social support) that reveals variability in the research findings. Parenting behaviour in child rearing practices is closely linked with children behavioural outcomes. Research has suggested that negative parenting behaviour is associated with children behavioural problems and most parents act harshly towards their children when there are under stress. This implies that negative parenting behaviour mediates the relationship between parenting stress and children behavioural problems. However, there are also situations where parents with autistic children who experience stress do not practise negative parenting behaviour, in particular those who receive social support. This entails that social support could moderate the negative influence of parenting stress on parental behaviour. There is only a handful of studies that have been conducted on the role of third variables in the parent-autistic child relationship outside the Western context. Thus, there is a need to conduct more research on the role of third variables in non-Western populations, particularly in the Malaysian context. This paper aims to propose an empirical conceptual framework that investigates the role of parenting behaviour in mediating the relationship between parenting stress and autistic children’s behavioural problems and the moderating role of social support in mitigating the effect of parenting stress on parenting behaviour in the Malaysian context.