title: Relation of the childhood autism rating scale-parent version to diagnosis, stress, and age.
abstract: This study explored the relation of severity of functional impairment on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale-Parent version (CARS-P) to diagnosis, parenting stress, and child age. Twenty-two mothers of children with autism and 19 mothers of children with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) completed the CARS-P and the Parenting Stress Index. The autism group received significantly higher (i.e., more severe impairment) CARS-P ratings that did the PDD-NOS group. For the total sample, severity of impairment was a significant predictor of child-related parenting stress. The CARS-P was inconsistently associated with age-significantly positive for the PDD-NOS group but nonsignificantly for the autism group. Implications for the use of the CARS-P in assessment of children and the evaluation of interventions are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, NY 10458-9993, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Tobing
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Glenwick
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results