Autism-specific parenting self-efficacy: An examination of the role of parent-reported intervention involvement, satisfaction with intervention-related training, and caregiver burden

Abstract

Parenting self-efficacy, described as the beliefs parents hold about their ability to successfully parent their children, has been shown to support parent and child well-being. Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder face disproportionately high levels of demand both as caregivers, and as partners in multiple, complex, intervention programs. This study examines the relationship between parents’ experiences with their child’s interventions—specifically their sense of involvement in treatment and satisfaction with intervention-related training—and their confidence in parenting a child with autism spectrum disorder, defined as autism-specific parenting self-efficacy. Participants ( N = 438, 93% mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder aged 2–17 years) completed our novel autism-specific parenting self-efficacy scale and rated their experience of involvement in their child’s interventions and satisfaction with intervention-related training across a range of common autism spectrum disorder–related treatments. Respondents also completed a caregiver burden scale. Findings indicate that parents who report greater involvement in their child’s interventions, and note greater satisfaction with intervention-related training, also report greater autism-specific parenting self-efficacy. Parents who report greater financial and social burden report lower autism-specific parenting self-efficacy. We propose that these results are important in creating intervention experiences that foster parental self-efficacy through involvement, productive training experiences, and addressing parental burden. Lay abstract What is already known about the topic? Parents of children with autism experience enormous challenges managing the complex needs of caring for their children. This includes coordinating multiple and complex therapies and acting as partners in treatment. Parenting self-efficacy is the confidence a person has in their ability to manage the tasks that are part of raising a child. People who have more confidence, or greater parenting self-efficacy, often feel less stressed and are more able to manage the demands of family life. This is particularly important for parents with children who have autism spectrum disorder, since they experience more parenting pressures. Although a lot is known about parenting self-efficacy in parents of neurotypical children, we do not know enough about how to help parents of children with autism spectrum disorder develop greater parenting self-efficacy. What this paper adds? This study shows that parents gain a greater sense of parenting self-efficacy when they feel more involved in their child’s therapy and are more satisfied with the training they receive as part of these therapies. We also find that feeling pressure related to being a caregiver of a child with autism spectrum disorder can undermine autism-specific parenting self-efficacy. However, parents’ sense of confidence was not limited by the severity of their child’s symptoms. Implications for practice, research, or policy The results suggest that there is an opportunity to help parents develop a greater sense of confidence in their ability to manage the complexities of raising a child with autism spectrum disorder by helping them feel more involved in treatment and by creating intervention-related training experiences that are more satisfying. Providers might also help by taking time to address the challenges and pressures that parents are experiencing, and helping them find ways to deal with these challenges. We suggest that there needs to be more research exploring how providers can best design interventions that support autism-specific parenting self-efficacy as a way of improving parental and child well-being.

Sense of Parenting Efficacy, Perceived Family Interactions, and Parenting Stress Among Mothers of Children With Autistic Spectrum Disorders

“…At the same time, the language input of parents in family interaction is a kind of language stimulation for children with autism and the application of language communication strategies in family interaction can promote the development of children's communication and language (Ye et al, 2020 ). Previous studies have also confirmed that parental participation in parenting and parent–child interaction is considered to be important factors to alleviate parental pressure with a low-level sense of parenting efficacy (Shumow and Lomax, 2002 ; Jones and Prinz, 2005 ; Weiss et al, 2016 ; Zhou et al, 2019 ; Benedetto et al, 2021 ; Feng et al, 2021 ; Kurzrok et al, 2021 ). Parenting efficacy is an important factor for the effectiveness of autism parenting training programs (Russell and Ingersoll, 2020 ).…”

Building Self-Efficacy in Parenting Adult Children With Autistic Spectrum Disorder: An Initial Investigation of a Two-Pronged Approach in Role Competence

“…PSE represents a domain-specific subset of self-efficacy and is found to be associated with adaptive parenting, psychosocial adjustment, and well-being in parents and children ( Albanese et al, 2019 ). In the ASD population, higher PSE in parents is associated with lower negative mood, more effective coping strategies, higher agency in the parenting role and better family resilience ( Kurzrok et al, 2021 ). Kurzrok et al (2021) also suggested that as self-efficacy is highly domain-specific, its assessment should be tailored to the specificity.…”

“…In the ASD population, higher PSE in parents is associated with lower negative mood, more effective coping strategies, higher agency in the parenting role and better family resilience ( Kurzrok et al, 2021 ). Kurzrok et al (2021) also suggested that as self-efficacy is highly domain-specific, its assessment should be tailored to the specificity. Kurzrok et al (2021) and colleagues developed a measurement on autism-specific parenting self-efficacy (PSEa) in response to the specific need of the ASD population.…”

“… Kurzrok et al (2021) also suggested that as self-efficacy is highly domain-specific, its assessment should be tailored to the specificity. Kurzrok et al (2021) and colleagues developed a measurement on autism-specific parenting self-efficacy (PSEa) in response to the specific need of the ASD population.…”

“…The Autism-Specific Parenting Self-Efficacy Scale (PSEaS; Kurzrok et al, 2021 ) was employed as the primary measure considering its theoretical origin emphasising PSE in parents of children with ASD. For local use, the PSEaS was translated and back-translated for standardisation in Chinese before application.…”