ABSTRACT
Parents of children with ASD are at increased risk of poor psychological well-being because of the unique parenting challenges and cultural stigma they are often faced with. This chapter reviews scholarship from the authors’ own research group, as well as that of others, on four aspects of self-care – sleep, social support, partner relationship quality, and positive emotion and self-kindness – found to be related to positive psychological well-being in parents of children with ASD. Each section ends with recommendations for clinicians. Self-care strategies that may be of benefit to parents of children with ASD include focusing on good sleep quality, cultivating effective social support, attending to the partner relationship quality, and fostering positive emotion and self-kindness. Each of these self-care strategies has been linked to better psychological well-being in parents of children with ASD.
