Abstract
Parental protective factors constitute an important, but understudied perspective for the accommodation for the treatment of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Using a sample of 100 parents, this study examines associations among marital status, number of children diagnosed with ASD, and social economic status with parental coping style and access to formal support. This study further examined whether these factors influence each other and if so, finding different ways to improve parental coping style and access to support. The findings did not demonstrate consistent relationships between emotion-focused coping, access to support, and the three independent variables. Parental SES and marital status did not significantly influence the type of coping used. However, a significant relationship was found in regards to the number of children with ASD that parents were taking care of. Results found that parents who have more than one child diagnosed with ASD tend to use more emotion-focused coping; which in turn refutes the original hypotheses. Results also indicated that married parents of higher SES and who have more than one child diagnosed with ASD have slightly greater access to services versus single parents. Limitations and clinical implications for these findings are also discussed.