Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder are known to experience more stress than parents of children with any other conditions. The current study describes the parental stress of 118 fathers and 118 mothers at the onset of their children's Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention program. The objectives of the study were to compare and analyze each parent's stress and to identify factors that might predict their stress. Results indicated that fathers reported higher levels of stress than mothers. Correlations indicated that the stress levels of both parents were associated with their child's age, intellectual quotient, severity of autistic symptoms, and adaptive behaviors. Paternal stress, but not maternal stress, was predicted by severity of autistic symptoms and child's gender. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for services and early interventions.

No agreement has been reached yet on the co-occurrence of Intellectual Disability (ID) and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in young children. This study describes the clinical profiles of 253 children with ASD between 30 and 65 months old, on IQ and adaptive behaviors, prior to their entry in an early behavioral intervention program. Results showed that 36.8% of the children met the criteria for ID, with 60.2% of these in the mild range (IQ 50-69) and 39.8% in the moderate range (IQ 35-49). ID profiles were similar for boys and girls. Intellectual and adaptive behavior profiles are described as well as their links to various socioeconomic factors.

While the influence of mother-child relationships on children's recovery following sexual abuse has been documented, less is known about the possible contribution of father-child relationships on outcomes. The present study explored the contribution of children's perception of security in their relationship to the father on internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, while controlling for sociodemographic variables and variables associated with the mother-child relationship. Participants were 142 children who disclosed sexual abuse involving a perpetrator other than the biological father. Regression analyses indicated that children's perception of security to fathers contributed to the prediction of parental reports of children's behavior problems, even after controlling for maternal psychological distress and perception of security to mothers. KeywordsChild sexual abuse; perception of security to fathers; perception of security to mothers; psychological distress Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a widespread social problem that affects children and adolescents, both boys and girls. Prevalence of CSA occurring in childhood (i.e. before the age of 18) is established at 18% for women and 8% for men (Stoltenborgh et al. 2011). Among all substantiated reports of child abuse in the US, 9% involve CSA, meaning that more than 63 000 children per year are reported to public services for sexual abuse (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). Numerous studies have shown that child victims of sexual abuse are more likely to demonstrate negative emotional, psychological, and social outcomes compared with non-abused children (Guelzow et al. 2002; Hébert et al. 2006a, b;Swanston et al. 2003;Walrath et al. 2003). However, outcomes following the disclosure of CSA have been described as quite diverse (Hébert et al. 2006a, b;Paolucci et al. 2001) and empirical reports have identified factors associated with variability of outcomes. Some studies revealed that abuse-related characteristics such as the duration (chronic) and severity of acts (penetration), the perpetrator's identity (intra-familial perpetrator) as well as the use of coercion have been related to more detrimental outcomes (Hulme and Agrawal 2004;Merrill et al. 2001). However, other studies have failed to identify a link between abuse-related variables and children's symptoms (Bal et al. 2004 CIHR Author ManuscriptCIHR Author Manuscript CIHR Author Manuscript Bennett et al. 2000; Romano and De Luca 2001), highlighting the need to consider other variables that may contribute to outcomes in child victims of CSA.Authors argue that familial factors, such as quality of attachment to parents, parental capacity to support the child following disclosure, and family characteristics (e.g., cohesion and conflict), can influence a child's capacity to cope with sexual abuse. On this matter, a study by Ray and Jackson (1997) found that adult survivors of CSA were better able to cope with the situation when the family environment was evaluated as being cohesive....

Cette étude explore l'impact de la relation père-enfant sur l'adaptation des enfants suite au dévoilement d'une agression sexuelle. Soixante-dix-neuf enfants ont rempli des mesures évaluant la perception de sécurité d'attachement à la mère et au père (Kerns Security Scale;Kerns, Klepac & Cole, 1996), les troubles de comportement intériorisés et extériorisés (Dominique interactif; Valla, Bergeron, St-Georges & Berthiaume, 2000) et l'estime de soi (Self-Perception Profile for Children; Harter, 1985) après le dévoilement d'une agression sexuelle. Les résultats indiquent que la perception de sécurité d'attachement au père n'est pas significativement corrélée à la perception de sécurité d'attachement à la mère. Une série de régressions hiérarchiques révèlent que la perception de sécurité d'attachement à la figure paternelle ajoute à la prédiction des comportements intériorisés, extériorisés (marginaux) et à l'estime de soi des enfants au-delà de la perception de sécurité d'attachement à la mère. Sont présentées les répercussions possibles des résultats dans le cadre des interventions offertes aux enfants victimes d'agression sexuelle.Mots-clés : agression sexuelle, perception de la sécurité d'attachement paternel, détresse psychologique, estime de soi L'agression sexuelle (AS) envers les enfants est un problème social d'envergure. La prévalence obtenue auprès des échantillons issus de la communauté varie de 12 % à 35 % chez les femmes, et de 4 à 9 % chez les hommes (Putnam, 2003). Un sondage récent auprès d'un échantillon de la population québécoise indique que 22,1 % des femmes et 9,7 % des hommes interrogés ont vécu une AS