Relationship between sense of coherence, social support, negative attitude and parental stress among parents of children with autism in Selangor, Malaysia

Increased cases of autism have been identified in Malaysia in the past few years and there is sufficient evidence that parenting a child with autism potentially affects parents in several ways, including increased parental stress. However, research that explores the challenges and issues faced by these parents in Malaysia are limited. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between sense of coherence, social support, negative attitude and parental stress among parents of children with autism in Selangor, Malaysia. This qualitative study used correlational design to determine the relationship between variables. Survey method was used to collect the data. A total of 80 parents (49 mothers and 31 fathers) were recruited as respondents by using the cluster sampling method. Parents completed a set of questionnaires consist of demographic data sheet, Sense of Coherence-13 Questionnaire Scale (SOC- 13), Duke–UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire (FSSQ), Family Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), and Autism Parenting Stress Index (APSI). Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate statistics were used to analyses data. This study found that sense of coherence, social support, and negative attitude had significantly correlated with parental stress. Both sense of coherence and social support showed a significant negative relationship with parental stress which indicates that these two variables can help parents in reducing stress. Meanwhile, a significant direct relationship between negative attitude and parental stress suggest that parents with negative attitude are more prone to stress. Moreover, results of multiple regression analyses also concluded that negative attitude was the strongest unique predictor of parental stress and was partially mediated the relationship between social support and parental stress. These findings strongly emphasized that negative attitude lead to parental stress and prevent parents from seeking or receiving social support that can help them reduce stress. Therefore, effective support mechanisms in the early stages of diagnosis that can educate parents about autism are very important in in order to prevent parents' negative attitudes towards autism as well as helping parents adjusting their lifestyle to manage autistic children. In addition, intervention towards autistic children should not only emphasis on reducing the major symptoms but should also focus on helping parents to become more optimists and improve their wellbeing. Findings from the present study thus contributed to the body of knowledge, most notably on the significant role of negative attitude in affecting parental stress among parents of children with autism.

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