Assessment of Perceived Stress Among Parents Having Children with Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study
Keywords:
Autism, NDDs, stress, PSS-10Abstract
Background: The burden of Neurodevelopmental disorders is huge.Caring of NDD children is astressful job.Chronic parental stress can lead to adverse cardiovascular consequences.Adressing stress of parents is crucial to effective and inclusive health policy.
Objective: To assess perceived stress among parents of children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders and to compare with neurotypical kids parents.
Method:A cross sectional observational study was conducted among parents attending in hospital,therapy clinics,special and inclusive schools and day care centers and normal parents of Dhaka city and other places.Structured questionnaire of PSS 10 was used to measure their perceived stress along with other socio demographic parameters.Descriptive and comparative statistics were used to analyze the data.
Result: For NDD group, total 120 parents were chosen, among them 60 were fathers and 59 were mothers. ASD was the most prevalent group of NDD (64%) followed by CP (16%), ADHD (9%), Downs syndrome (6%) and others (5%). Stress level in parents having NDD kids is substantially high with a mean of 35.7. For normal group, total 120 parents with normal kids were chosen randomly. Among the responders 57% were mothers and 42.1% were fathers. Mean PSS score of fathers were16.Stress in NDD parents is substantially higher than that of normal group wich is significant statistically. High stress is also associated with low education level, low income, severity of diasability etc However weak but non significant coreeltion of stress and parental sex,duration of parenting,geographical variation also revealed.
Conclusion: Percived stress is substantially higher in parents having kids with NDDs than parents with neurotypical kids.The finding deserves more attention to this overlooked subgroup of population in implementing health policy.
J Shaheed Suhrawardy Med Coll 2025; 17(1): 90-98
36
29
