Parental quality of life, child adjustment and adult attachment in parents of children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Parents of children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) mayexperience a lower quality of life (QoL) than parents of offspring with typical development.However, factors associated with parental QoL are not yet fully understood.Aims: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between parental QoL, child adjustmentand adult attachment among parents of children and adolescents with ASD.Methods and procedures: One hundred and eighty-eight parents of children and adolescentsdiagnosed with ASD completed a group of self-report questionnaires on sociodemographic variables,QoL (i.e., overall QoL and ASD symptoms-related parental QoL), child adjustment (i.e.,offspring's total problems and prosocial behaviors) and adult attachment.Outcomes and results: Structural equation modeling revealed that the overall parental QoL wasnegatively related to children's total problems and positively associated with prosocial behaviors,as well as with higher levels of secure attachment and lower levels of fearful attachment styles.Additionally, ASD symptoms-related parental QoL was negatively associated with the offspring'stotal problems.Conclusions and implications: This suggests that child characteristics may interact with parentalcharacteristics to either enhance or compromise the QoL of parents of children and adolescentswith ASD. Implications of these findings for promoting parental QoL are discussed.