Afrontamiento en familias con niños con Trastorno del Espectro Autista, Síndrome de Down y Desarrollo Típico

Abstract

Background. Raising a children has responsibilities that are sometimes perceived by parents-mothers or caregivers and situations that exceed their own resources. In the case of those children who present a disorder claims arising from parenthood are even higher and can therefore lead to parental stress. Objective: to analyze what styles and strategies of coping with stress develop in parents of children who present an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Down syndrome or have a standardized development and any differences between them. Participants: in the study a total of 97 families, 23 families with children with Down syndrome, 32 families with ASD and 42 typically developing (TD). It was administered to mothers or fathers either a Coping questionnaire evaluating positive reappraisal, depressive reaction, denial, planning, conformity, cognitive disconnect, personal development, emotional control, distancing, distracting activities, curb coping, avoidance coping, problem solving, social support, behavioral disengagement, emotional expression emotional social support, palliative response. Results: A MANOVA was performed with the variables mentioned above. Significant differences between groups in the MANOVA were found however in the comparison between groups no statistically significant differences were found in the variables, being marginally significant in the variables depressive reaction, conformism, problem solving and social support among TD – Down groups; and depressive reaction between TD - ASD groups. Conclusion: Knowing the styles and coping strategies address the problems or difficulties arising from the parenting of the families whose children presented ASD or Down syndrome could be a means of protection against stress and improve programming assistance.