Presentation given by Naomi Downes, Université Paris Descartes - Laboratoire de Psychopathologie et Processus de Santé (LPPS - EA4057), Paris (France) at the Autism-Europe's 12th International Congress 2019: "A New Dynamic for Change and Inclusion", held the 13-15th September 2019 in Nice, France. Introduction
Research among the general population has shown that a high
quality co-parenting relationship is an important factor for the
child’s development and the couple’s relationship. Yet, empirical
studies in the field of autism have mostly focused on the couple’s
romantic relationship. Thus, it is important to go beyond the romantic relationship and understand the co-parenting relationship as a separate concept in the domain of autism, especially as parents of a child with ASD are confronted on a daily basis with very different and more stressful parenting demands. The objective of this study was to be the first systematic review to identify the factors associated with co-parenting a child with ASD.
Methods
This systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA statement. The relevant research was screened in order to
conserve quantitative and qualitative articles in English or French
language. Due to a certain confusion in the literature concerning the concepts of co-parenting and the couple’s romantic relationship, studies were selected if they had at least one specific assessment of co-parenting or one of its dimensions. Overall, twelve databases were searched and nine articles met the criteria for inclusion after screening.
Results
This review highlights the limited number of studies focusing on
co-parenting in the domain of autism as well as their heterogeneous methodologies. Despite these limits, the findings suggest that certain factors such as parental stress, satisfaction with the division of childcare-related labour, and autism symptom severity are related to co-parenting a child with autism spectrum disorder.
Discussion
This study emphasizes the need for further research to assess
the factors of risk and protection related to co-parenting a child
with ASD, as well as how the co-parenting relationship affects the
child with ASD throughout different stages of development. Future
researchers are advised to use consistent terminology, measurements, and include data from each parent in the analysis. Such research would support practitioners in their work on the co-parenting relationship, which could ultimately prove to have a beneficial effect on their romantic relationship given the bidirectional link between these two constructs. Moreover, parents may be more willing to work with practitioners on their co-parenting relationship in a first instance rather than their marital difficulties.
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