ABSTRACT
Background: Raising a child is a big responsibility for the parents. This responsibility increases if the child has a disability like autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or specific learning disorder (SpLD). Objectives: To study and compare the parental stress, parenting style and resilience in parents of children having ASD, SpLD and children who do not have a psychiatric disorder. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done where we assessed the participants using the Parental stress scale, Parenting styles questionnaire and The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Results: The study sample consisted of parents of 98 children, which included 53 mothers and 45 fathers. Mean stress scale score was significantly higher in parents having a child diagnosed with ASD than in parents having a child with specific learning disorder than in parents having a child with neither of these (p<0.001). Mean parental stress score was also significantly higher in parents with a male child than in parents with a female child (p=0.039) Stress score also was higher in female parents than in male parents (p=0.033). Housewives and unemployed parents had significantly higher mean stress scores than employed population (p=0.006). The mean resilience score was significantly higher (p =0.003) in authoritative parenting followed by permissive with authoritarian parents having the least score. Conclusion: Perceived level of stress in a parent is affected by the type of disability, time spent with the child and gender of the parent and child whereas parental resilience is affected by parenting styles.