Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) impacts one in every 59 children in the United States of America (CDC, 2018). Not only does ASD affect the life of the child, but it also impacts the lives of the child's caretakers. Parental stress related to perceptions of symptom severity, the impact of the child's diagnosis, fear of relapse, social stigma, cost of care, and daily stressors of simply having a child can impact the psychosocial well-being of the parents (Seltzer et. al., 2009; Woolfson, 2004). Gaining insight into coping mechanisms of parents of children with ASD allows the opportunity to increase awareness, create individualized intervention approaches, and provide families with the care they need. The aim of this dissertation was to explore the impact of humor, optimism, and spirituality on the stress levels of parents of children with ASD. Specifically, the goal was to determine if the use of the positive psychology constructs of humor, optimism, and spirituality were related to parental stress. An additional aim of the study was to determine if there were differences in parental stress by parental perception of symptom severity. The study examined three specific symptom severity levels for this question based upon DSM-V criteria for ASD. To collect data, a sample of adults with children with ASD were recruited via social media, then surveyed through the Qualtrics survey system. A standard multiple linear regression was used to examine whether humor, optimism, and spiritualty could predict parental stress. A one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine differences between parental perception of symptom severity on parental stress. The 7-item Coping Humor Scale (CHS; Lefcourt & Martin, 1986) was used to measure humor. The 10-item Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R; Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994) was used to measure optimism. The 20-item the Spiritual Well Being Scale (SWBS; Ellison, 1983; Ellison & Smith, 1991) was used to measure spirituality. The 36-item Parental Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF; Abidin, 1995) was used to measure parental stress. Participants (n =166) for the study were mostly comprised of females (n = 122) and individuals of Caucasian ethnicity (n =101). While mothers primarily represented the sample, there was a small representation of males (n = 39). Regarding the child's diagnosis, ASD was most frequently reported (n = 122). The results of the study indicated the use of optimism as a positive coping mechanism predicted decreased levels of parental stress in parents of children with ASD, with 5.9% of the variance explained. However, the use of humor and spirituality were non-significant. The One-way ANOVA indicated groups differences between mild severity and severe severity in that those individuals with mild symptom severity perceptions experience more parental stress than those with severe symptom severity perceptions, with 4.9% of the variance explained. A discussion of the findings, limitations of the study, and implications for theory, practice, and research are provided.
