The spectrum of attitudes towards the spectrum of autism and its relationship to psychological distress in mothers of children with autism

Abstract

Attitude of mothers towards their children’s autism may play a role in mothers’ psychological well-being. We investigated the predictive value of how mothers understand autism (as a neurodivergence or a developmental disorder) on their psychological distress. A group of 371 mothers of children on the autism spectrum participated in this study. We found that understanding autism as a neurodivergence was related to lower psychological distress in mothers, even after controlling for the level of autism symptoms. However, when controlling for caregiver burden, their attitude towards autism was no longer significant in explaining their psychological distress. These findings suggest that the way mothers understand autism may be important for their psychological adjustment. However, it also suggests that mothers of children on the autism spectrum may adopt different attitudes towards autism, depending on their child’s level of autism symptoms and the caregiver burden. Lay abstract Mothers of children on the autism spectrum experience high levels of emotional distress. Mothers cope with stress by having their own thoughts and opinions about their children. In this study, we tested whether the way mothers perceive autism may contribute to the level of distress they feel. Some mothers see autism as a developmental disorder that needs to be cured, but some see autism as a type of mind that needs to be accepted. Our findings showed that mothers who see autism more as a type of mind are generally less stressed. But we also showed that it matters how severe are the child’s symptoms, and how heavy was the perceived burden of caring for the child. These results imply that it is worth working on attitudes towards autism to help mothers cope better. But at the same time, we argue that mothers should not be judged for their perceptions of autism, as there is a huge spectrum of a child’s characteristics and family’s life circumstances.

Looking through rainbow-rimmed glasses: Taking neurodiversity perspective is related to subjective well-being of autistic adults

“…At the same time, this group is also more likely to have higher self-esteem. Although in this sample, the intensity of autism traits did not relate to attitude towards autism, the autism symptomatology may be related to the way autism is understood (Ferenc et al, 2022). Therefore, while these results point to the importance of attitudes towards autism with regard to self-esteem in autistic adults, a longitudinal or interventional study would be necessary to examine the causality of this relationship.…”

“…Participants rated their attitude by choosing the extent to which they agree or disagree with each of the 10 statements of the questionnaire on a 5-point Likert-type scale (from 5 for ‘strongly agree’ to 1 for ‘strongly disagree’). In the previous analyses, the ATA-Q showed good internal consistency in the sample of 373 mothers (Cronbach’s alpha, α = 0.89) and good test–retest reliability after 6 months in a randomly selected group of 30 mothers ( r = 0.84) (Ferenc et al, 2022). In the current sample ( n = 126), we found good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha, α = 0.87) and good test–retest reliability after 6 months in a randomly selected group of 30 adults with ASC ( r = 0.81).…”

“…Furthermore, we did not control the functioning level of our participants and because of that, we were unable to assess the extent to which functioning level may contribute to the results, and whether this may act as a possible confound. Our previous study (Ferenc et al, 2022) showed that the way of understanding autism (as a disorder or a neurodiversity) in mothers of children on the autism spectrum is affected by the degree of caregiver burden and is related to the level of their child's symptoms, showing that these factors need to be taken into consideration when studying this relationship. Nearly half of the sample reported a diagnosis of depression, which reflects the statistics on co-occurring depression in the autistic population (Hudson et al, 2019).…”

Community-guided, autism-adapted group cognitive behavioral therapy for depression in autistic youth (CBT-DAY): Preliminary feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy

“…Importantly, caregivers expressed interest in concurrent caregiver sessions to complement CBT-DAY and this may serve as a meaningful platform to explore and promote adolescent autistic identity with caregivers using neurodiversity-affirming approaches. As caregiver-child relationships affect both adolescent (Laursen & Collins, 2009) and caregiver (Ferenc et al, 2023) mental health outcomes, opportunities to explore autistic identity with caregivers may be an important next step in this line of research for youth and caregivers alike.…”

Correlation between 5-HT, Hcy and the incidence and severity of autism in children

“…Some scholars have put forward the hypothesis that homocysteine (Hcy) level and autism in children (4), and think that homocysteine is an important intermediate product of methionine and cysteine metabolism, which inhibits the activity of cystathionine-β-synthase, and participates in the development of the human nervous system with vita-min B12 and folic acid, and ensures the normal function of the nervous system (5). Clinical research shows that children's autism is characterized by aggregation and familial, suggesting that the disease has a certain genetic tendency (6). With the development of biological technology and genetic technology, the incidence of children's autism is related to susceptible genes, so children's autism may be related to 5-hydroxytryptamine and homocysteine.…”