The Relationships of the Cognitive Emotional Regulations, Parental Stress among Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Focusing on the Moderating Effects of Positive Reappraisal

The purpose of this study were to examine the effects of the severity of autism traits, behavior problems(externalizing behavior/internalizing behavior) of 196 children with autism spectrum disorders(ASD) aged 2-13, and their mother's cognitive emotional regulations strategies on the parental stress of mothers of children with ASD. This study also examined the mediating effect of mother's adaptive cognitive emotional regulations on the relationship between severity of autism, behavior problems and parental stress. The instruments included Korean version of Parenting Stress Index, Adaptive Cognitive Emotion Regulations, Child Behavior Checklist, Childhood Autism Rating Scale. Results indicated that child's sex and age were not associated with parental stress, whereas mothers of children with higher severity of autism and behavior problems experienced significantly more parental stress than less severity group. The severity of behavior problems was the strongest predictor of parental stress. The study further showed that positive reappraisal strategy was the only mediator strategy in the relationship between severity of autism and parental stress, whereas it had no moderating effect on relation between severity of behavior problems with parental stress. Results are discussed in relation to applications for clinical practice and parent eduction efforts.restrictio