Prevalence of Stress level among Mothers of Children with Autism

Background: Parenting is a tough role and having a child with disabilities can make it more difficult as these children have impairment in physio- psycho- social development. Parents find it more stressful to accept the disability of their child. Parents who have a child with Autism have a chance of 2%-18% of having second child with Autism. There will be greater anxiety& stress in parents who are caring for autistic. Mothers play a major role in parenting a child that too if the child is autistic she experiences significant stress. Materials & Methods: Ethical clearance was taken. Informed consent was obtained from the mothers. Parental Stress Scale (Reliability= 0.83) was filled by mothers through Google form. Result: Data analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel version 2007. Out of 32 mothers about 52% of mothers with autistic children have been suffering from moderate amount of stress and about 45% of mothers with autistic children has severe stress only 3% of mothers have mild stress. Conclusion: This study concludes that there is a prevalence of stress level in mothers of Autistic children. Key words: Prevalence, Stress, Mothers, Autism