Parenting behaviour among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder

Contrary to the extensive amount of empirical findings about parental perceptions, parenting cognitions, and coping in families with a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research about parenting itself is very scarce. A first goal of this study was to examine the factor structure and internal consistency of two scales to measure parenting behaviour: the Parental Behaviour Scale-short version (PBS, Van Leeuwen, 2002, Van Leeuwen and Vermulst, 2004 and Van Leeuwen and Vermulst, 2010) and a new scale to measure parenting behaviours more specifically relevant to children with ASD. A second goal was to compare general and more specific parenting behaviour among parents of children with and without ASD. The participants were 305 parents of a child with ASD between 8 and 18 years old and 325 parents of a typically developing child between 8 and 18 years old. Parents completed both scales. Exploratory factor analysis of the new scale resulted in two factors: Stimulating the Development and Adapting the Environment. Multisample confirmatory factor analyses showed good fit indices for the noninvariant model of both the PBS and the new scale. Mean level analyses revealed significant main effects of group with higher mean scores for the control group in comparison with the experimental group for the subscale Harsh Punishment and the reversed effect for the subscale Stimulating the Development. We concluded that it is possible to use the parenting constructs of the PBS-short version to investigate parenting behaviour of parents with and without children with ASD. Furthermore, the new scale showed a relatively stable two factor structure for the control group as well as for the experimental group. The two factors ‘Stimulating the child's Development’ and ‘Adapting the child's Environment’ were also convincing as regards content. A first indication was found that parents of children with ASD indeed use more specifically relevant parenting behaviours. It is self-evident that more research is needed to gain further insight into the nature of these behaviours.

Research highlights▶ The PBS-short version shows a relatively stable five factor structure. ▶ A new scale for parenting behaviour among parents of children with ASD was developed. ▶ The factor analysis yielded two main factors: Stimulating the Development and Adapting the Environment.