Parenting stress levels among parents of autism children

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the levels of parenting stress among parents with autism children. A total of 120 parents (60 mothers and 60 fathers) in the age range of 20 – 50 years whose children are diagnosed with Autism were selected from the twin cities of Telangana state as sample through purposive sampling method. The data was collected by using Parenting stress index-short form (PSI-SF) developed by Abidin (1995). An ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. The parental stress scale that measures the parental distress, parent child dysfunctional interactions and parental difficulty in dealing with the child. Frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the data. Findings of the study revealed that 38% of parents with ASD children experienced clinically significant levels of parenting stress followed by high levels (28%), average levels (22%) and only few (12%) of them had low levels. This suggest that parents need immediate intervention services to cope up effectively with their parenting stress.