Mental retardation and stress on the parents: a contrast between Down's syndrome and childhood autism.

Mothers of autistic, Down's syndrome, and outpatient psychiatric clinic children completed a questionnaire about their attitudes toward the identified child and the effects of the child on themselves and their families. A canonical correlation between the 15 questionnaire scales and three groups revealed a general retardation/social dependency factor separating the mothers of the two retarded groups from the clinic sample. The autism group was differentiated from the Down's syndrome group by scales measuring severity of the child's handicap and family integration problems more than by scales measuring stress on the mother. The hypothesis that mothers of autistic children would report more problems than both other groups was supported; the hypothesis that mothers of Down's syndrome children would report more problems than mothers of outpatient clinic children was not.