A Comparative Study of Parenting Styles, Parental Stress and Resilience among Parents of Children Having Autism Spectrum Disorder, Parents of Children Having Specific Learning Disorder and Parents of Children Not Diagnosed With Any Psychiatric Disorder.

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.