Muhammad Bilal Abid, Shazia Maqbool, Anam Ali, Wajeeha Zahra, Hina Azhar, Ehsan Ullah.
Expressed Emotions and Stress among Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Pak Paed J Jan ;46(3):295-300.

Objective: To determine the relationship of expressed emotions with stress in parents of ASD children. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Place and duration of study: Department of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, University of Child Health Sciences, The Children`s Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan. The study duration was 6 months from June, 2022 to November, 2022. Material and Methods: A sample of 79 parents having children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (aged 3-18 years) was collected through purposive sampling technique. Berkeley expressivity questionnaire and perceived stress scale were administered to measure emotional expressivity and stress respectively. Demographic questionnaire including age, gender, income, severity of diagnosis, etc. was also administered. Results: Gender and age at the time of diagnosis were positively correlated with stress of parents of ASD children (p<.05). Parents having children with moderate ASD (p<.01) were more stressed than those having children with mild ASD (p<.01). Mother`s education was a significant negative predictor of stress. Expressed emotions (p<.05) was positively correlated with stress (p<.05). Two facets of emotional expressivity i.e., negative expressivity (p <.05) and impulse strength (p <.01) were positive predictors of stress. However, no significant relationship was found between positive expressivity and stress. Conclusion: Mothers of ASD children had high expressed emotions and were stressed. This stress was more in mothers with less education and mothers of children with moderate ASD.

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