Different Supports, Different Effects: Social Support Moderates the Impact of Parenting Stress on the Mental Health of Parents of Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Parenting stress, social support, and mental health among parents of individuals with intellectual disabilities have garnered significant scholarly attention. Although existing research has extensively elucidated the relationship between parenting stress and mental health, there is limited systematic investigation into the role of social support-particularly regarding which and how social support moderates the impact of parenting stress on the mental health of these parents. Based on data from the 2020 Comprehensive Survey on Caregiving Burden and Public Service Needs of Families with Intellectual Disabilities conducted in Shenzhen, this study examines the relationships among parenting stress, social support, and mental health of Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The findings reveal that overall, parenting stress exerts a significant negative effect on parental mental health, while social support has a significant positive effect. Further moderation analysis indicates that both subjective support and support utilization partially alleviate the adverse effect of parenting stress on mental health, whereas objective support primarily enhances mental health through a direct pathway. Moreover, differential patterns emerge between parents with and without disabilities: for non-disabled parents, subjective support and support utilization both directly improve mental health and reduce the negative impact of parenting stress. Objective support, however, only contributes directly to mental health and does not show a moderating effect. In contrast, among parents with disabilities, objective support effectively promotes mental health but does not mitigate parenting stress; subjective support and support utilization show neither direct nor buffering effects. These findings enrich the empirical literature on family mental health in the context of intellectual disability and offer practical implications for enhancing family support policies and improving the well-being of affected households.