Parenting Style among Indonesian Parents of a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Associations with Socio-Economic Status and Social Supports

Socio-economic status (SES) and social supports have been strongly linked with both authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles among parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Western countries. While Indonesia is one of the most heavily populated countries in the world, research focusing on factors associated with parenting style among Indonesian families with a child with ASD is largely absent from the literature. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships among SES, social supports and parenting styles among Indonesian parents of children with ASD. One hundred and one Indonesian parents of a child with ASD completed the survey. SES and social supports both emerged as unique predictors of parenting styles for these parents, although the direction of the association with SES was unexpected. For Indonesian parents of children with ASD, lower SES and more supports predicted more authoritative and less authoritarian parenting. This study supports existing evidence for associations among parenting style and social supports, but raises questions about the cultural meanings of these parenting styles for parents with a child with ASD in Indonesia.