Mental Health in Mothers of Autistic Children with a Medical Home: The Potentially Mechanistic Roles of Coping and Social Support

Madeline R Horan; Shawn J Latendresse; Christine A Limbers

doi:10.1007/s10803-023-05997-6

Mental Health in Mothers of Autistic Children with a Medical Home: The Potentially Mechanistic Roles of Coping and Social Support

J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 May 4. doi: 10.1007/s10803-023-05997-6. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Madeline R Horan¹, Shawn J Latendresse², Christine A Limbers²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, MS735, 38105, Memphis, TN, USA. madeline.horan@stjude.org.
² Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, USA.

PMID: 37142909
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-023-05997-6

Abstract

Mothers of autistic children often report poor mental health outcomes. One established risk factor for these outcomes is the child having a medical home. This study examined possible mediating variables (coping, social support) in this relationship in 988 mothers of autistic children from the 2017/2018 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). The results of the multiple mediation model suggest the relationship between having a medical home and maternal mental health is largely explained by indirect associations with coping and social support. These findings suggest that clinical interventions for coping and social support provided by the medical home for mothers of autistic children may improve maternal mental health outcomes over and above implementation of a medical home.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Coping; Medical home; Mental health; Mothers; Social support.