Abstract
The purposes of this scoping review were: (a) utilize the CCM to provide a more cohesive summary of the knowledge base, and (b) offer insights into the coping strategies on which more research is needed. To identify the articles that explore the coping strategies of parents of children with ASD, a literature search was conducted using Indiana University (IU) OneSearch. Article selection was guided by the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Overall, 24 articles met the inclusion criteria. Results suggest that there are four underexplored coping strategies of the CCM (e.g., positive emotional, helplessness, preoccupation with the problem, and hedonic disengagement). However, there are four well-studied coping strategies of the CCM (e.g., negative emotional, problem avoidance, effectiveness, and problem-solving).
TopCoping Strategies
Parents of children with ASD utilize an array of coping strategies as a means of alleviating the psychological distress related to raising a child with ASD (Alos et al., 2021). Coping is deemed as “cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding resources” (Vernhet et al., 2018, p. 747). Research on coping strategies has focused on two areas: (a) factors affecting parents’ use of coping strategies, such as parental gender (Pepperell et al., 2018; Vernhet et al., 2018), parental ethnicity (Twoy et al., 2006), and children’s age (Gray, 2006); and (b) dissimilarities between the coping strategies of parents of children with ASD and parents of typically developing children (Alos et al., 2021).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Scoping Review: Is a type of knowledge synthesis which uses a systematic and iterative approach to identify and synthesize an existing body of literature on a given topic.
Coping Strategies: Are methods and practices that an individual uses to diminish stress, anxiety, and depression.
Coping Circumplex Model (CCM): Is a model which comprehensively lists the coping strategies of individuals.
Psychological Distress: Refers to a condition in which an individual experiences stress, anxiety, and depression.
Autism: Is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by acute impairments in social-emotional reciprocity and non-verbal communicative behaviors.