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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1443707
This article is part of the Research Topic The Psychology of Parenting in Unique Life Experiences: Understanding the Challenges of Continuous Stressful Circumstances and Marginalized Populations View all articles

Does Hope Mediate the Relationship Between Parent's Resolution of Their Child's Autism Diagnosis and Parental Stress

Provisionally accepted
Vrinda Naicker Vrinda Naicker Darren Hedley Darren Hedley Simon M. Bury Simon M. Bury *
  • Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Resolution of a child's diagnosis, the process of accepting and adjusting to the reality of a child's significant diagnosis, has been often associated with decreased parental stress. However, factors that might explain this relationship have not been as explored. Hope, a potential buffer against psychological distress, has been suggested as a potential explanation for this relationship. However, the mediating role of hope in the relationship between resolution of diagnosis and parental stress has not been explored. This study aimed to examine whether four types of hope (child, parental, societal, denial of diagnosis) mediated the relationship between resolution to an autism diagnosis and reduced parental stress. Participants included 73 parents (Mage = 43.22, SD = 7.69, Female 97.3%) of autistic children (Mage = 11.15, SD = 4.56, Male = 67.1%). Resolution to diagnosis was negatively and significantly correlated with resolution to diagnosis, as well as child, parental and societal hope. These three hopes were also significantly and negatively correlated with parental stress. Importantly, when controlling for level of support and autism awareness, parental hope mediated the relationship between resolution to diagnosis and parental stress. Denial of diagnosis was not correlated with resolution or parental stress but did have significant but weak associate with the other hopes. These findings suggest that hope based on parent's abilities to support their child and be supported themselves play an important role in parental stress once parents are more resolved to their child's diagnosis. Supporting parents to manage factors associated with supporting their child's needs, may benefit parents of autistic children.

    Keywords: Resolution, Autism Spectrum Disorder, diagnosis, hope, Parent-child relationship, Parental wellbeing, acceptance. (Min

    Received: 04 Jun 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Naicker, Hedley and Bury. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Simon M. Bury, Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, 3086, Victoria, Australia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.