Parenting Stress, Social Support, and Affiliate Stigma among Asian and White Parents of Children with Autism in the United States

Abstract

The present study examined parenting stress and its predictors among Asian and White parents of autistic children in the United States, with particular attention to parents' race and nativity. In total, 125 parents of autistic children in the United States completed a one-time online survey. Findings revealed that foreign-born Asian parents reported significantly higher levels of parenting stress and received less family and spousal support compared to U.S.-born White parents. Differences also emerged within the Asian parent group, as foreign-born Asian parents reported significantly lower levels of family and spousal support than their U.S.-born Asian counterparts. In contrast, total support, formal support, and non-family informal support did not differ significantly across the three race/nativity groups. These findings suggest that foreign-born Asian parents of autistic children experience greater deficits in family-level support, rather than non-family support, compared to U.S.-born Asian and U.S.-born White parents. Race/nativity was found to moderate the associations between total support and parenting stress, as well as between spousal support and parenting stress. Specifically, both total support and spousal support had stronger stress-buffering effects for foreign-born Asian parents compared to U.S.-born White parents. Although affiliate stigma did not differ significantly across groups, it predicted higher parenting stress for all parents in the current study, regardless of race/nativity groups. These findings support prior research indicating that social support and affiliate stigma are key determinants of parenting stress, while also highlighting the nuanced variations across different domains of social support and the influence of parents' race and nativity. The findings offer both theoretical and practical implications for families, service providers, and social workers, and lay the groundwork for future research aimed at developing more culturally responsive support programs and interventions to support parents of autistic children.