Comparing Parental Stress, Parenting Styles, and Social Problem Solving in Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, and Typically Developing Children

Background and The existence of an exceptional child often imposes irreparable damage on families. The extent of this vulnerability is sometimes to the extent that the mental health of the family is severely damaged. The aim of the present study was to compare parental stress, parenting styles, and social problem solving in mothers of children with autism, ADHD, and typically developing children.
The statistical population consisted of mothers of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children in Second District of Tehran during the academic year of 2016-2017. 75 mothers (n = 25 in each group) were selected using convenience sampling method and responded to parenting stress index (PSI), the social problem-solving inventory - revised (SPSI-R), and Baumrind’s parenting styles questionnaire. In order to analyze the data, multivariate analysis of variance was used.
The results of analysis of variance indicated significant differences between mothers of children in the three groups in parental stress and authoritarian parenting style, but no significant difference was found in permissive and authoritative parenting styles. There was also significant differences between mothers of children in the three groups in negative problem orientation and avoidance style, but no significant difference was found in positive problem orientation, rational problem-solving, and impulsive/carelessness style (p The results of this study emphasize the increase of knowledge in the application of parental styles and the effective social problem solving as well as the negative consequences of parenting stress in mothers of children in the three groups.