Stress among parents of children with and without autism spectrum disorder: a comparison involving physiological indicators and parent self-reports

Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been reported as experiencing higher levels of stress and poorer physical health than parents of typically developing children. However, most of the relevant literature has been based on parental self-reports of stress and health. While research on physiological outcomes has grown in recent years, gaps still exist in our understanding of the physiological effects, if any, of stress related to parenting a child with ASD. The present study compared parent-reported stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as selected physiological measures of stress (i.e., cortisol, alpha-amylase, and ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate) between matched groups of parents of children with (N = 38) and without (N = 38) ASD. Participants completed questionnaires, collected saliva samples for the purpose of measuring cortisol and alpha-amylase, and wore an ambulatory blood pressure monitor for 24 h. Parents of children with ASD reported significantly higher levels of parental distress, anxiety, and depression than parents of typically developing children. Parent-reported distress, anxiety, depression, and health were not correlated with physiological measures. With the exception that parents of children with ASD had significantly lower cortisol levels 30 min after waking, no other significant group differences were found for physiological measures. Parents of children with ASD reported significantly higher use of a number of adaptive coping strategies (e.g., emotional support) in comparison to parents of typically developing children. Results are discussed in the context of implications for future research directions, stress research, and practical implications for parental support

The importance of co - authorship and disciplined research

This study reviewed articles in a Pacific Islands Educational Journal from 1978 to 2005 in order to analyse the types of authorship and types of papers published. It was specifically interested in looking at the prevalence of co-authorship and in identifying the style of authorship and the research approaches taken. It was found that of the 362 authors, most of them are single authors at 75.7 and 24.3% were involved in co-authorship. In terms of the types of papers, 72.7% wrote essay or opinion papers, 17.7% wrote articles based on quantitative approaches, 7.7% wrote qualitative articles and 2.2% wrote articles using mixed method approaches. These findings have important implications for research and publication in higher education and research in and on the Pacific Islands, in terms of encouraging collaborative research among researchers and being out in the field to collect data to enable better evidence for education