The Impact of Children with and without Developmental Disabilities on Relationship Satisfaction and the Parenting Alliance

Background: Studies have shown that parents of children with ASD report greater negative impact of the child on family adaptation including financial stability, sibling relationships, and parents’ social lives than parents of children with other chronic problems (e.g., Down syndrome, ADHD, ODD). Parents of children with ASD also report increased marital discord and parent stress. Currently there are no studies examining differences in parent perceptions of child impact and how this factor may influence parental relationships, particularly parents’ spousal relationships and agreement on co-parenting.

Objectives: One goal was to determine whether there were differences in mothers’ report of positive and negative impacts of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Down syndrome (DS), and Typically Developing (TD) children, as well as differences in parenting agreement and marital satisfaction. An additional goal was to determine whether there were differences between the three diagnostic groups in the relationship between child impact, mothers’ marital relationship, and parental alliance.  

Methods: The total sample included 157 mothers including, 54 mothers of children with Down syndrome, 56 mothers of children with ASD, and 47 mothers of typically developing children. The children ranged in age from 3-9 years old (DS Mean = 4.87, SD = 1.62; ASD Mean = 6.37, SD = 1.8; TD Mean = 5.31, SD = 1.9); 99 were male and 57 were female. Mothers completed measures online that assessed child impact on the family, marital satisfaction, co-parenting alliance, and child symptom severity. All parents completed the questionnaires online through SurveyMonkey. Only participants who completed 90% or more of the questionnaires received a $20 Amazon.com gift card.

Results: After controlling for child sex and parent education, results showed that mothers of children with ASD reported greater negative impact, lower marital satisfaction, decreased parent alliance, and higher child symptomatology compared to both other groups. Contrary to past research, the DS group did not differ from the TD group on measures of marital satisfaction and parent alliance. Further, child impact negatively predicted marital satisfaction and parent alliance for the ASD group only.  

Conclusions: This is the first study to examine differences in parent perceptions of child impact on the family, the marital relationship, and the parenting alliance across parents of children with ASD, DS, and TD children. This study further supports the importance of including parents (and the family) in treatment for children with ASD. Specifically, targeting parents’ negative cognitions about their child in family-based interventions may be important for increasing family adaptation and resilience. Treatment considerations also include a focus on improving parenting and marital relationships as well as child behavior in order to improve quality of life for families of children with ASD.