Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, Ahead of Print.
The sizable prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in China has recently emerged as an urgent public health issue, however studies investigating parenting stress in Chinese parents of children with ASD lack clarity in identifying the potential factors of stress. The aim of this systematic review was to identify and categorize the potential factors of stress based on findings in the literature. An extensive search of articles in online databases including PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCOhost (ERIC, MEDLINE and PsycINFO) was conducted, as a result of which 24 eligible articles published from 2007 to 2019 were identified. Four key categories of potential factors of parental stress – cultural factors, parents’ psychopathological symptoms, problem behaviors in ASD children, and caregiver burden were identified. The impact of these potential factors on parental coping strategies and on the quality of life in affected families were also discussed.