Parenting a Child With Autism: Predictors of Parental Self-Efficacy

As the rate of children being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) increases, so too does the number of parents learning to cope with their child’s disability and its effects on their own health, well-being, and parental self-efficacy. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which subjective social status, parental social supports, and fatigue were factors predicting parental self-efficacy in parents of children diagnosed with ASD residing in the state of Oregon. Bandura’s social cognitive theory was used to frame this study. The sample for this study consisted of 120 parents of children diagnosed with ASD living in the state of Oregon. Ordinal logistic regression was employed in this quantitative study. Ordinal logistic regression indicated that subjective social status (Wald χ2(1) = 6.353, p = .012) had a positive but not significant predictive effect on parental self-efficacy, whereas fatigue (Wald χ2(1) = 22.851, p = .000) had a significant negative predictive effect on parental self-efficacy, and social supports (Wald χ2(1) = 8.980, p = .003) had a significant positive predictive effect on parental self-efficacy. Spearman’s ρ analysis revealed a weak positive relationship between subjective social status and parental social supports (rs (120) = .101, p \u3c .01). The results of this study may influence positive social change by assisting stakeholders in creating programs that not only enhance the parental self-efficacy of parents of children with ASD but can also assist in understanding their own health and well-being