Clinical and individual features associated with maternal stress in young adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Parents of people with autism spectrum disorder experience both negative stressful and positive events. Several clinical and socio‐demographic features of children on the autism spectrum have been associated with parenting stress in their families. However, there have been few studies that focus on adolescents and the role of cognitive impairment has rarely been addressed. The main aim of the present research is to explore associations between autism symptoms, cognitive impairment, emotional and behavioral problems, socio‐demographic features, and maternal stress in a sample of young adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder with and without cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment and emotional and behavioral problems are associated with maternal stress, while autism symptoms seem to play a minor role. Maternal education and occupation are only associated with maternal stress in the group with cognitive impairment, while maternal age is stress‐associated in the group of adolescents without cognitive impairment. Age‐related implications for intervention and future research directions are discussed. Lay Summary Parents of individuals on the autism spectrum are exposed to both negative stressful and enriching experiences during their parenthood. While the influence of several child characteristics and socio‐demographic features on parental stress during childhood has been widely explored in past studies, studies on teenagers are limited. The aim of the present research is to explore the influence of several characteristics on maternal stress levels in families with teenagers on the autism spectrum. We found that cognitive impairment and emotional and behavioral problems are associated with maternal stress, while autism symptoms seem to play a minor role. Socio‐demographic features are not associated with maternal stress. Broadly speaking, the subjective perception of parental distress in both groups is less related to teenagers' characteristics then the perception of having a difficult interaction with the teenagers. We divided our participants into two groups (one group with cognitive impairment and the other group without). We found that mothers of teenagers with cognitive impairment are generally more stressed compared to the other group. Furthermore, we confirm that emotional and behavioral problems seem to play a major role in maternal stress (especially in the group without cognitive impairment), while autism symptoms seem to play a minor role. Furthermore, we found that maternal education/occupation and maternal age are associated with maternal stress in the group with and the group without cognitive impairment respectively. This research highlights the association between several variables and stress in mothers of adolescents on the spectrum. Results are discussed in the framework of previous findings highlighting the lack of adequate care and support services for families, especially for those of adolescents on the spectrum with cognitive impairment.

Psychiatric Comorbidities in Children and Adolescents with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Study on Prevalence, Distribution and Clinical Features in an Italian Sample

“…This is further supported by another finding from the present research, which indicates that the participants belonging to the ASD/PSY group were older than the youth in the ASD group. Consistently, several studies have shown that comorbid psychiatric conditions in ASD are influenced by age [ 7 , 27 , 53 , 54 ]. For example, results from a cross-sectional study indicated that increasing age is the most common risk factor for the development of anxiety and mood disorders in children and adolescents with ASD aged 6–17, regardless of the presence or absence of ADHD [ 14 ].…”

“…Inter-rater correlations for the Total score are 0.52–0.96 [ 49 ]. PSI has been translated into several languages and has been frequently used in ASD research [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ].…”

YTHDF3 modulates the Cbln1 level by recruiting BTG2 and is implicated in the impaired cognition of prenatal hypoxia offspring

“…Human clinical studies and preclinical animal models support the notion that maternal stress during pregnancy can result in brain development issues in the fetus. 48 , 49 In humans, chronic fetal hypoxia is one of the most prevalent consequences of complicated pregnancy, and it may be detrimental to the development and health of offspring. 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 Moreover, Shen et al.…”

Cooperative Parent-Mediated Therapy in Children with Fragile X Syndrome and Williams Beuren Syndrome: A Pilot RCT Study of a Transdiagnostic Intervention-Preliminary Data

“…Several studies have showed that other factors could contribute to improved quality of life and stress in families of individuals with developmental disabilities, such as the presence of an adequate support network [ 63 ] or specific therapies on parental cognition (e.g., mindfulness) [ 64 ]. These results suggest that if we want to improve quality of life and stress in these families, we must target an intervention separate from CPMT [ 65 ].…”