Emotional Empathy Mediates the Relationship between Mental Health of Parents of People with ASD and the Autistic Symptomatology of the Care Recipient

Abstract

Caring for people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been reported to have a negative impact on the caregivers' health. One of the most studied risk factors is the severity of the autistic symptomatology of the care recipient, greater severity of symptoms having been associated with poorer health outcomes in caregivers. However, to our knowledge, no studies have evaluated the role of empathy of the caregivers in this association. This study aimed to explore the possible mediating effect of both cognitive and emotional components of empathy in the relationship between autistic symptoms of the care recipient and caregiver depression and anxiety in 76 caregivers of people with ASD. Only personal distress mediates the association with anxiety, while both components of emotional empathy, personal distress and empathic concern, mediate the relationship between autistic symptoms and depressive symptomatology. In both cases, high scores in empathy were related to high levels of symptomatology. These results have implications for clinical practice, in that evaluating empathy in caregivers could help to foresee and hence take measures to prevent psychological disorders in this population.