COPING WITH AUTISM - STRESSES AND STRATEGIES

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of coping stres ses and strategies among a sample of parents with autistic children. T he most serious stresses that parents faced included problems with the lack of normal language, disruptive and violent behaviour, inappropri ate eating and toileting and inappropriate sexual expression. Most par ents used a variety of coping strategies, the most common of which inc luded the use of service agencies, family support, social withdrawal, religion, normalisation, individualism and activism. Although no singl e coping strategy seemed to provide a definitively better outcome for the parents' adjustment, the use of services and family support appear ed to provide the most successful strategy of coping for a substantial number of parents.