Associations Between Parenting Stress, Parenting Behaviours and Language Abilities in Autistic Preschoolers: A Study with Mothers and Fathers.

Background and Aims: Research shows that language abilities in autism are highly heterogeneous and that parents play a crucial role in children's development. However, the bidirectional relationships between parenting stress, parenting behaviours and children's language abilities in autism remain under-researched. Furthermore, fathers are often excluded from autism parenting research. This study therefore aimed (1) to compare mothers and fathers with respect to the levels of self-reported parenting stress and behaviours and (2) to examine associations between parenting stress, parenting behaviours and children's language abilities, as well as whether these associations differ between mothers and fathers. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 92 autistic children aged 2-6 with their mothers and fathers. Parenting stress and parenting behaviours were measured with self-report questionnaires. Children's receptive and expressive language abilities were measured using a combination of standardised tests, which were chosen depending on the children's age, abilities and community language (i.e., Dutch or French). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare mothers and fathers. Zero-order and partial Spearman correlations were adopted to examine associations among variables, and Fisher's r-to-z transformations compared the strength of associations between maternal and paternal correlations. Results: Mothers reported higher scores on parenting stress and several positive parenting behaviours (i.e., positive parenting, supervision, rules, rewarding, stimulating the development and adapting the environment) than fathers. No significant differences were found in the amount of autonomy support, discipline and indulging. In mothers, multiple parenting behaviours (i.e., autonomy support, supervision, discipline and stimulating the development) were significantly correlated with children's language abilities, although these associations weakened when controlling for children's non-verbal cognitive abilities. In fathers, only supervision correlated significantly with children's language abilities. Mothers showed no significant associations between self-reported parenting stress and behaviours. In fathers, however, higher parenting stress was linked to lower positive parenting, rewarding and stimulating the development and to higher discipline and indulging. Paternal stress was also related to lower receptive language abilities, a pattern not observed in mothers. Conclusions: More differences than similarities emerged in parenting experiences and practices between mothers and fathers. Mothers reported more parenting stress and positive parenting practices compared to fathers, whereas no differences were found for negative parenting practices. Gender differences also appeared in the associations between parenting stress, parenting behaviours and child's language abilities. More specifically, maternal parenting behaviours were more strongly related to children's language abilities than paternal parenting behaviours. Importantly, these associations weakened after controlling for children's cognition, suggesting a complex interplay between these variables to be further researched. Parenting stress was related to both parenting behaviours and children's language abilities only in fathers, and not in mothers. Implications: These findings suggest the importance of including both mothers and fathers in autism parenting research and clinical practice. They encourage future longitudinal and intervention studies to further examine the interrelations between parenting stress, parenting behaviours and children's language development, while also considering the role of child characteristics that may influence these associations, in order to inform parent-mediated language interventions.