The impact of social support on quality of life in Chinese parents of children with autism spectrum disorder: the mediating role of resilience

This study examined how resilience mediates the relationship between social support and quality of life (QoL) among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (CWASD) in China. A total of 257 parents were recruited using simple random sampling from a hospital. Participants completed the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC, Chinese version), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF, Chinese Version). Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0, including descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and mediating effect analysis with the PROCESS macro. Social support was positively correlated with resilience (r = 0.60, p < 0.01) and all QoL domains, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.48 to 0.67 (all p < 0.05). Mediating effect analysis revealed that resilience partially mediated the effect of social support on QoL (β = 0.61, t = 4.55, p < 0.001; indirect effect = 0.21, 95% CI [0.06, 0.13]). This study reveals that resilience is a crucial pathway through which social support is translated into improved QoL for parents of CWASD. This finding underscores the need for a dual-focus approach in interventions, one that simultaneously strengthens external support systems and cultivates internal coping capacities.