The Severity of Behavior Problems of Children with ASD and Their Mothers’ Stress Coping Styles and the Impact upon Maternal Parenting Stress

Abstract

The purposes of this study were twofold. Firstly, we sought to examine the effects of the severity of behavior problems of children with autism spectrum disorders and maternal stress coping styles on maternal parenting stress. Secondly, we investigated whether maternal stress coping styles moderate the relationship between the severity of children's behavior problems on parenting stress. The participants of this study comprised 106 mothers of children with ASD who were aged 6 to 18. In order to measure the research variables, the Parenting Stress Scale(Hwang, 2002), the Korean version of Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 6-18(Oh, Kim, Ha, Lee, & Hong, 2010), the Ways of Coping Checklist(Kim, 1987) were used. The data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. The results indicated that both the severity of externalizing behavior problems and the emotion-focused stress coping styles had significant and positive effects on parenting stress. Second, the stress coping styles had no moderating effect on the relationship between the severity of behavior problems(externalizing behavior problems, internalizing behavior problems) and maternal parenting stress.