THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTING STRESS AND CHILD BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS AMONG CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER: THE ROLE OF PARENTING BEHAVIOUR AND SOCIAL SUPPORT

Abstract

Objectives: Parenting children with ASD is not an easy task as there are many extra parenting demands placed on parents, and as a result, many parents, particularly mothers, experience parenting stress. This maternal parenting stress has been found to have negative impacts on children (i.e., the development of behavioural problems) and parenting behaviour (the use of negative parenting), both of which may result in problems later in life. Therefore, the relationship between these variables is worth investigating. This study aimed to investigate these variables in a Malaysian context due to the paucity of research conducted in this setting. In particular, the objectives of this study are as follows: 1) to examine the relationship between parenting stress and child behaviour problems in children with ASD; 2) to examine the relationship between parenting behaviour and child behaviour problems in children with ASD; 3) to investigate the mediating effect of parenting behaviour in the relationship between parenting stress and child behaviour problems in children with ASD; and 4) to investigate the moderating effect of social support in the relationship between parenting stress and parenting behaviour.

Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted by using the following instruments: 1) the Parental Stress Scale (Berry & Jones, 1995); 2) the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Frick, 1991); 3) the Family Support Scale (Dunst, Trivetter & Hamby, 1984); and 4) the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997). Using snowball and purposive sampling techniques, a total of 198 Malaysian mothers whose child had been diagnosed with ASD and was between 5 and 12 years old participated in this study.

Procedure: This study was conducted after the IIUM Research Ethics Committee (IREC) granted ethics approval. Two platforms, physical and online, were utilised to collect data. On the physical platform, participants were provided with a paper questionnaire (survey). On the online platform, Google Form questionnaires were sent via email, WhatsApp group, and Facebook to the participants. Only Malaysian mothers who have a child with ASD aged between 5 and 12 years old were recruited in the study.

Analyses: This study used the IBM SPSS Statistic 22 software for Windows to perform descriptive analysis and the PLS-SEM with SmartPLS version 3.0 to test 1) the direct relationship between maternal parenting stress and child behaviour problems; 2) the direct relationship between maternal parenting behaviour and child behaviour problems; 3) the mediating effect of maternal parenting behaviour in the relationship between maternal parenting behaviour and child behaviour problems; and 4) the moderating effect of social support in the relationship between parenting stress and parenting behaviour.

Findings: The results from PLS-SEM demonstrated that: 1) maternal parenting stress was not significantly related to child behaviour problems; 2) only corporal punishment was significantly related to child behaviour problems, while positive parenting was not; 3) maternal parenting behaviour did not mediate the relationship between maternal parenting stress and child behaviour problems; and 4) only formal social support moderated the relationship between maternal parenting stress and positive parenting, while informal social was not.

Significance: Such findings highlight the importance of conducting cross-cultural research, particularly in Asian contexts, in order to gain a better understanding of the predictors of child behaviour problems, such as how parenting stress, parenting behaviour, and social support are related to child behaviour problems. These findings may also be a frame for professionals and other relevant parties to design and develop a comprehensive intervention that includes parental elements (parenting stress and parenting behaviour) and social support as main components to aid in the reduction of behaviour problems in children with ASD.