Mental health and aggravation in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder and a medical home : the mechanistic roles of coping, social support, and health insurance.

Mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often report having mental health problems and experiencing aggravation. These maternal outcomes are related to unmet health care needs of children with ASD. One proposed risk factor for differences in maternal outcomes is having a medical home. The disability-stress-coping model of adjustment theorizes that the relationship between risk factors and maternal outcomes, or adaptation, is explained by resistance factors. In the current study, two mediation models were tested to examine the extent to which a medical home is related to maternal outcomes through three proposed mediating constructs: coping, social support, and health insurance. A sample of 988 mothers of children with ASD from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) was utilized in the current study. The results of the multiple mediation models suggest that the relationships between having a medical home and maternal outcomes are largely explained by indirect associations with coping, social support, and health insurance adequacy, but not health insurance type. Additional alternative models were examined to further explore the relationships between having a medical home and maternal adaptations.