Support needs of fathers and mothers of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

Little research has examined the support needs of mothers versus fathers of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We identified and compared the important and unmet support needs of mothers and fathers, and evaluated their association with family and child factors, within 73 married couples who had a child or adolescent with ASD. Mothers had a higher number of important support needs and higher proportion of important support needs that are unmet than fathers. Multilevel modeling indicated that child age, co-occurring behavior problems, presence of intellectual disability, parent education, and household income were related to support needs. Findings offer insight into the overlapping and unique support needs of mothers and fathers of children and adolescents with ASD.