Self-reported health and cortisol awakening response in parents of people with asperger syndrome: The role of trait anger and anxiety, coping and burden

Abstract

Caring for offspring with autism spectrum disorders entails high levels of stress for a long period of time and is associated with several types of health complaints. Few studies have focused on specific effects of particular disorders in the spectrum. This study was carried out with the aim of evaluating the global health of parents of people with Asperger syndrome (N = 53) compared to those of typically developing children (N = 54) through self-reported measures (medication consumption and somatic symptoms) and biological markers (cortisol awakening response [CAR]). Additionally, we analysed various psychological variables as potential predictors of caregiver health. We found that caregivers take more medication and have worse self-reported health than controls, but there were no significant differences in CAR between the groups. However, after controlling for negative affect, differences between groups in CAR reached significance. With regards to predictor variables, anxiety trait, cognitive-coping style, burden and anger temperament were significantly associated with caregiver's self-reported health. These findings underline the need to develop interventions that foster improvements in the health of caregivers, reduce their burden and enhance their quality of life.

Impact of Perceived Stress, Anxiety-Depression and Social Support on Coping Strategies of Parents Having A Child With Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome

“…These results replicate previous findings showing a high rate of anxiety/depression in parents of a child with GTS (Lee et al, 2007). It has been widely demonstrated that being parents of a child with a chronic disorder had a negative impact on the physical and mental health of parents in charge of his education (Lovell, Moss, & Wetherell, 2012;Ruiz-Robledillo & Moya-Albiol, 2013, Ruiz-Robledillo, González-Bono, & Moya-Albiol, 2014). This has been mostly shown in developmental disorders, particularly in ASD, as problem behaviors were identified to be a primary predictor of parental stress (Estes et al, 2013;Zaidman-Zait et al, 2011).…”

“…It has been shown that these parents have increased odds of reporting poor social relations (as neighborhood and friends; Hock & Ahmedani, 2012), more difficulty in adjustment (with coping strategies ;Hastings, 2002;Walsh, Mulder, & Tudor, 2013) and lower level of mental health (high levels of stress and anxiety: Almansour, Alateeq, Alzahrani, Algeffari, & Alhomaidan, 2013;Ruiz-Robledillo & Moya-Albiol, 2013;Seymour, Wood, Giallo, & Jellett, 2013). These findings also revealed that child behavior difficulties may add to parental stress which is well known to be associated to many negative outcomes including anxiety and depression, and may in return influence the use of ineffective coping strategies (Ji et al, 2014;Walsh et al, 2013).…”

Behaviour problems of children with ASD and perceived stress in their caregivers: The moderating role of trait emotional intelligence?

“…For example, in several recent studies, caregivers of children with ASD reported higher levels of negative affective symptoms such as perceived stress , anxiety (Ruiz-Robledillo et al, 2013) and depression (Gallagher & Hannigan, 2014) compared with controls. However, individual difference variables, especially those related to caregivers' personal characteristics such as personal mastery (Cantwell et al, 2014), locus of control (Lloyd et al, 2009) and benefit finding (Kayfitz et al, 2010), have been shown to explain much of the variance in caregivers' subjective feelings of distress.…”

A Mindfulness-Based Program Improves Health in Caregivers of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Pilot Study

“…The negative consequences of caring for a relative with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been widely described in previous research (De Andrés-García et al 2012;Ruiz-Robledillo and Moya-Albiol 2013;RuizRobledillo et al 2014). Caring for such a relative is associated with high levels of burden, depression, anxiety, and poorer self-perceived general health (Ruiz-Robledillo and MoyaAlbiol 2013).…”