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Psychological distress among greek parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder: Is there a link to anxiety symptoms in neurotypical offspring?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

E. Koukouriki
E. Koukouriki*
Affiliation:
Special Education Lab, Department Of Primary Education, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece Centre For Educational And Counseling Services Of Trikala, Hellenic Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Trikala, Greece

Abstract

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Introduction

Parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at higher risk of suffering from mental health problems (MHP) than parents of children with other developmental disabilities. Research on the general population documented that MHP in parents contributes as a significant risk factor for maladjustment outcomes in their offspring, while parental anxiety disorders in particular have been associated with a higher prevalence of anxiety disorders in the offspring. However, evidence concerning possible associations between parent-offspring psychological problems in the case of ASD-families is scarce and inconsistent.This study forms a part of a larger PhD study and some preliminary findings have been partially discussed in previous work.

Objectives

To investigate any association between anxiety symptoms in neurotypical offspring (ASD-siblings) with parental MHP.

Methods

118 parent-child-dyads from ASD-families that fulfilled inclusion criteria participated in this study and answered a demographic questionnaire. Parents were administered the GHQ-28, while the children answered the STAIC-A-Trait. A hierarchical multiple regression was performed to test the hypothesis.

Results

Participating parents demonstrating poorer mental health, with 53 (44.9%) of them considered as suffering from psychological distress according to the score of GHQ-28. Furthermore, hierarchical regression showed that STAIC-(A-Trait) total score of ASD-siblings was associated with parental anxiety (std beta=0.292; p=0.29;model 1) and this association persisted after demographics entered the model (std beta=0.300; p=0.029; model 2).

Conclusions

This study shows a significant association between parental psychological distress and anxiety in the neurotypical offspring in ASD-families, highlighting the need to provide all members of ASD-families with the appropriate services.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

psychological distressanxiety symptomsautism spectrum disorderneurotypical offspring
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S615
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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