Resilience and Psychological Distress among Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Moderating role of Perceived Social Support

Abstract

The paper investigated the moderating role of perceived social support in the relationship between resilience and psychological distress using 100 parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. Purposive sample of participants was chosen from Rawalpindi and Islamabad (25-40 years old). The requirements of ethical guidelines of American Psychological Association (APA) were met, and informed consent was taken before data collection. Brief Resilience Scale was used to measure resilience (Smith et al., 2008), Kessler Psychological Distress Scale was used to measure psychological distress (Addonizio and Patrick, 2011), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was used to measure perceived social support (Zimet et al., 1988). Pearson correlation analysis has demonstrated that there is a positive relationship between resilience and perceived social support besides the fact that both variables showed negative relationships with psychological distress. The moderation analysis revealed that the perceived social support had a significant buffering effect on the relationship between resilience and psychological distress and, therefore, it provides a form of protection to the parents who have to struggle with raising a child with autism. The present study limitations and implications have also been discussed.