PARENTAL QUALITY OF LIFE WHEN RAISING CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER: A NARRATIVE REVIEW.

Research shows that parents of autistic children consistently experience lower quality of life than other parents. This is due to higher stress levels, less social contact, increased costs, and poorly coordinated support services. However, programs that combine education, behavioral support, and sensory-friendly healthcare environments can help improve parents' mental health and wellbeing. Better coordinated, family-focused support and removing cost barriers are essential.

This narrative review examined 24 empirical studies exploring quality of life (QoL) in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder. The review consistently found that parents of autistic children experience significantly lower QoL across physical, social, and psychological domains compared to parents of typically developing children. Key contributing factors included increased caregiver stress, reduced social interactions, higher out-of-pocket costs, and poorly coordinated support services. Interventions combining psycho-education, behavioural coaching, and sensory-adapted healthcare environments showed moderate improvements in parental mental health and QoL.

The authors emphasize the need for multidisciplinary, family-centred programmes and policies addressing financial and accessibility barriers to improve parental wellbeing.

Clinicians should assess parental quality of life as part of comprehensive autism care. Multi-component interventions addressing education, behavioral support, and environmental adaptations may benefit parental wellbeing. Healthcare systems should prioritize coordinated, family-centered services and address financial barriers to accessing support services.

As a narrative review, this study lacks the systematic methodology of formal systematic reviews. The review period was limited to 2010-2024, potentially missing earlier relevant research. The authors note the need for more longitudinal and culturally diverse studies to clarify which intervention components provide sustained benefits.

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face unique and ongoing caregiving demands that can reduce their quality of life (QoL) across physical, social, and psychological spheres. This narrative review consolidates existing findings concerning how caring for a child with ASD affects parental QoL and identifies actionable strategies to mitigate the burden. We searched PubMed and Scopus for English-language studies published from January 2010 to May 2024 using terms such as "autism", "caregiver", and "quality of life". Empirical studies and systematic reviews involving parents of children (≤18 years) with ASD were included; abstract conferences were excluded.

Twenty-four empirical studies met the inclusion criteria; eight additional sources are cited for context. Publications consistently reported lower overall and domain‑specific QoL scores for parents of children with ASD versus parents of typically developing children. Increased caregiver stress, reduced social interaction, higher out‑of‑pocket costs, and uncoordinated support program services emerged as persistent drivers. Interventions that combined psycho‑education, behavioural coaching, and sensory‑adapted dental or medical environments showed moderate improvements in parental mental health and QoL metrics.

Multidisciplinary, family‑centred programmes and policies that remove financial and accessibility barriers are critical to improving parents' QoL. Future longitudinal and culturally diverse studies must clarify which intervention components provide the most significant sustained benefit.