Mental health of parents of children with autism: a comparative study

Abstract

The study compared the mental health of parents of children with autism to that of parents of children without autism. This study has also investigated among relationships the nine mental health dimensions. Using the purposive sampling technique, this study involved a sample of 140 parent (70 mothers and 70 fathers) of whom 70 had a child with autism and 70 had a child without autism. Data were collected through translated version of the SCL-90 and analyzed using Pearson correlation and ANOVA. The outcome demonstrated a significant and positive co-relation among all nine mental health dimensions. The study found that parents of children with autism reported poorer mental health, with higher levels of anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, somatic complaints, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, anger-hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. In addition, mothers were reported poorer mental health than fathers, across both groups. Dhaka Univ. J. Biol. Sci. 35(2), 145-157, 2026 (July)