Abstract
Mothers are often the primary parent participants in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research. As a result, little is known about fathers’ perceptions regarding their children’s ASD and whether these perceptions differ from mothers’. Given the limited information available regarding fathers’ perceptions about their children’s ASD, this study aimed to investigate father variables (stress, coping, support, and perception of disability) and how they compare to mothers’. Participants were 361 biological parents (294 mothers and 67 fathers) of children on the autism spectrum who participated in a larger study. Results revealed significant differences between mothers' and fathers’ self-reported stress and coping. Understanding differences between parents’ perspectives has both research and clinical implications for working with families raising children on the autism spectrum.
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Data collected for this work was partially supported by the University of Houston’s New Faculty Research Award to Dr. Mire. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the sponsoring organization. We are particularly grateful to the families who participated in the current study. We are also grateful to SSC@IAN for their assistance in recruiting as the families in this study were re-contacted from their original efforts.
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SCG participated in the conceptualization; SCG, HK participated in the methodology; SCG contributed to formal analysis and investigation; SCG, SSM conceived the writing—original draft preparation; SSM, HK, MAK participated in the writing—review and editing; SSM contributed to funding acquisition; SSM, HK, MAK conceived the supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Grebe, S.C., Mire, S.S., Kim, H. et al. Comparing Fathers’ and Mothers’ Perspectives About Their Child’s Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 52, 1841–1854 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05077-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05077-7