Shivali Tiwari, Bhupinder Singh and Indra Bhushan Kumar
Barkatullah University, Bhopal
Pages:44-52
The present study investigated the role of depression, anxiety, stress, and burden of
care among the mothers of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectually Disabled
(ID) children. The sample consisted of 30 mothers (15 each of A.S.D. and I.D. children).
The DAS Scale developed by S.H. Lovibond and P.F. Lovibond, was used to assess
depression, anxiety and stress levels of subjects and Zarit Burden Interview developed
by Dr. Zarit et al was used to assess the level of burden among them. The data was
subjected to t-test and Pearson r (Product Moment co-relational method). The results
indicated a positive correlation between burden of care and depression, anxiety, and
stress among both the groups of mothers ofASD and ID children. Further, no significant
difference was found between the mothers of A.S.D. and I.D on the psychological
variables being investigated. Understanding factors that impact parenting can guide the
development of interventions better tailored to support the needs of parents, particularly
mothers of children with A.S.D. and I.D. The implications of the findings are discussed..
Keywords: stress, depression, anxiety, burden, intellectual disability, autism, mothers