Correlations Among Mental Health, Social Support, and Parenting Self-Efficacy of Taiwanese Parents of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

The prevalence rates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among school-aged children have increased in Taiwan during the past decade. Raising a child with ASD presents a substantial challenge for the parents and might have implications on their well-being. Some evidence supports a positive relationship between parental mental health (MH) and parenting self-efficacy (PSE) and between social support (SS) and PSE. However, our understanding of the associations among MH, SS, and PSE remains unclear. Therefore, this study intends to investigate the relationships among MH, SS, and PSE of Taiwanese parents of children with ASD. Fifty-two parents of school-aged children with ASD completed the Adult Mental Health Scale, Social Support Scale, and Parenting Self-Efficacy Scale. Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t tests, correlation analyses, and stepwise regression analysis were used for data analysis. The overall means of MH (3.54), SS (3.12), and PSE (3.15) of these parents indicated average levels in relation to the mean of a 5-point scale (3.0). MH and SS, particularly Emotional SS, significantly and positively correlated with PSE. MH also significantly and positively correlated with Emotional SS, instead of overall SS. Both MH and SS are verified significant predictors for PSE, with MH a stronger one. In particular, parents' Positive Mentality, Low Anxiety, and Emotional SS appeared to be the strongest predictors for PSE. It is suggested that future research examine parents of children with ASD who have more diverse demographic characteristics and include control groups or groups of various disabilities. Multiple sources of information and objective assessment methods, such as interviews, observations, and spouse/partner reports, may also help verify the corollaries of this study. Additional factors such as parenting stress may be considered in future studies to further our understanding of relationships or potential influences among these correlates. In addition, future psychosocial intervention for parents of children with ASD should consider incorporating strategies to enhance parental positive mentality, regulate their anxiety level, and increase emotional social support in order to facilitate better parental mental health and parenting self-efficacy.

關鍵字

autism spectrum disorder (ASD) ； mental health (MH) ； parenting self-efficacy (PSE) ； social support (SS)

並列摘要

臺灣兒童的自閉症類群障礙症（autism spectrum disorder, ASD）盛行率近年有升高趨勢。ASD兒童父母所面對的親職挑戰可能對其身心健康造成影響，研究指出ASD兒童父母的親職效能分別與其心理健康、社會支持等因素有關。因此，本研究旨在探討臺灣ASD兒童父母的心理健康、社會支持與親職效能三者間之關係。本研究共有52位ASD兒童父母參與，填寫成人心理健康量表、社會支持量表及親職效能量表，所得資料進行描述性統計、t檢定、相關及逐步迴歸分析。ASD兒童父母的各量表平均得分為心理健康3.54、社會支持3.12及親職效能3.15，接近五點量表的平均分數3.0。心理健康、社會支持（尤其情感性社會支持）都分別與親職效能有顯著正相關；心理健康亦與情感性社會支持有顯著正相關，但與整體社會支持未達顯著相關。心理健康與社會支持能有效預測親職效能，其中特別具顯著預測力的子變項為：正向樂觀、低焦慮、情感性社會支持。建議未來研究可包含不同背景的ASD兒童，增加控制組，採用多元、客觀的評估方法，增加資料來源；亦可納入更多相關因素進行探討，以釐清這些潛在變項間的關係及可能影響。提供家長服務或親職訓練時，可加入提升正向樂觀態度、調節焦慮情緒、強化情感性社會支持的策略，以助提升親職效能、促進心理健康。

並列關鍵字

心理健康；自閉症類群障礙症；社會支持；親職效能

參考文獻

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