Abstract
There has been limited study of the relationship between child attachment and caregiver wellbeing amongst children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined self-reported child attachment quality alongside caregivers’ report of their own psychological distress, parenting stress and attachment style, amongst 24 children with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s disorder (ASD; aged 7–14 years) and 24 typically develo** children (aged 7–12 years), and their primary caregiver. Children with ASD were no less secure, but their caregivers were more stressed and reported more attachment-related anxiety, compared to typically develo** dyads. Child attachment security was related to caregiver psychological distress and attachment style, but only amongst typically develo** children. Impacts of emotion processing impairments on caregiver-child relationships in ASD are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
This research was completed by Belinda Keenan as part of a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Monash University, supervised by Louise Newman, Nicole Rinehart and Kylie Gray. This work was funded by Monash University School of Psychological Sciences. We are grateful to Tamara May for assistance in participant recruitment and cognitive testing.
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This work was funded by Monash University School of Psychological Sciences.
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BK participated in the design and coordination of the study, conducted the recruitment and testing of participants, and drafted the manuscript; LN conceived of the study, participated in the design of the study and interpretation of the data, and helped draft the manuscript; KG conceived of the study, participated in the design of the study and interpretation of the data, and helped draft the manuscript; NR conceived of the study, participated in the design of the study and interpretation of the data, and helped draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Keenan, B.M., Newman, L.K., Gray, K.M. et al. Parents of Children with ASD Experience More Psychological Distress, Parenting Stress, and Attachment-Related Anxiety. J Autism Dev Disord 46, 2979–2991 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2836-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2836-z