Psychosocial factors associated with the trajectories of interparental conflict for Australian fathers of autistic children: A longitudinal study across 10 years of child development.

Abstract

Lay abstract: Not much is known about how fathers experience conflict with their partners (either verbal or physical) while raising an autistic child. This study focused on understanding these experiences over 10 years, following children from the age of 4 to 14 years. The study had two main goals: (1) to track how fathers experience conflict with their partners over this time and identify different patterns to these experiences; and (2) to find psychosocial factors in early childhood that might impact these patterns. The study included 281 fathers of autistic children and 7046 fathers of non-autistic children who took part in 'Growing Up in Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children'. Using a statistical method to group fathers based on the partner conflict they reported over the 10 years, results showed that there were three groups: (1) 'low and stable', (2) 'moderate and stable' and (3) 'persistently elevated' experiences of partner conflict. Additional analysis showed that fathers' confidence in their parenting, perceived support from their partners and concerns about their child's language skills were associated with ongoing moderate levels of partner conflict. On the other hand, fathers who were older, had lower perceived support from their partners, partners experiencing psychological distress and higher parent-reported child social functioning were more likely to experience consistently high levels of conflict over time. In our study, we described different levels of conflict with their partners reported by fathers of autistic children. We also identified some of the factors that were associated with different levels of conflict. These might be used to inform interventions to reduce parental conflict in the future.