Coping Profiles of Parents at the Time of Their Child’s Autism Diagnosis: Differences Between Mothers and Fathers, and Associations With Family Mental Health

PURPOSE: Given theoretical and methodological criticisms surrounding coping strategies, this study examines coping profiles and differences between mothers and fathers at the time of their child's autism diagnosis. METHODS: Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses (MG-CFAs) were conducted to improve construct validity of the French Ways of Coping Checklist-Revised in 554 parents in France and to test measurement invariance between mothers and fathers. Linear mixed models were performed to examine parental status (mother vs. father) differences in coping strategies. Dyadic latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify distinct coping profiles and the R3STEP approach to examine differences in latent profile membership by parental status. RESULTS: MG-CFAs supported four coping dimensions (problem solving-positive reappraisal, seeking social support, wishful thinking, and self-blame) and demonstrated configural and metric invariances, with partial scalar invariance between mothers and fathers. Fathers reported a significantly lower use of all coping strategies except wishful thinking. LPA identified three coping profiles -Varied Coping, Adaptive-Dominant Coping, and Maladaptive-Dominant Coping-with no significant differences in latent profile membership between mothers and fathers. In both parents, coping profiles differed by anxiety symptoms; additionally, maternal profiles were associated with socio-economic status, stress levels, and the child's internalizing difficulties, and paternal profiles with depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide a more nuanced understanding of mother-father differences in coping among parents of autistic children and underscore the need for tailored, profile-based interventions in clinical practice and future research.