Parental Stress and Coping Attitudes in Autism Spectrum Disorder Children: A Survey during Movement Control Order period amid COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Parents with autistic children are more susceptible of developing stress due to genuine challenges in treasuring them. During the world pandemic disaster of COVID-19 emergency, the challenge is far greater than expected as movement control order restricted them to seek for help and resources as the country adopting strict isolation measurement to restrain COVID-19 virus infection. This survey was conducted online to determine the prevalence of stress, independent predictor and assessing coping style that help to overcome them. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using Facebook platform. The survey was posted into Autisme Malaysia group for 2 weeks duration from 17th June until 30th June 2020. Stress was measured using Malay version of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and coping style using Brief COPE questionnaire. Independent t-test was used to determine coping style associated with stress and multiple logistic regression for independent stress predictor. Results: The mean age of respondents was 38.9 years old with mean child’s age was 8.6 years old. Majority of respondents were female, Malay, and married couples with 83.1% of the caregivers were having stress. The independent predictor for stress were age of the caregivers and the level of education. The approach style of coping was significantly associated with stress. Conclusion: The pandemic has directly and indirectly contributed to stress prevalence among caregivers of children with autism. Hence, the right coping style should be embraced and empowered to parents for healthier stress therapy. Our findings recommended that coping style of informational support, behavioural disengagement, religion and acceptance as dynamic model of coping style. © 2022 UPM Press. All rights reserved.