This study examined the predictive power of well-being, spirituality and hope on parenting sense of competence in mothers of children with autism. The study was comprised of 82 mothers of children with autism, 64 of the children attending private schools for children with autism and 18 attending separate public school programs. Mothers were administered The Scales of Psychological Well-Being (Ryff, 1995); The Spiritual Inventory and Beliefs Scale (SIBS; Hatch et a1., 1998); The Hope Scale (Snyder, 1991), and The Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOCS; Johnston & Mash, 1989).

Correlations were found between independent (well-being and hope) and the dependent variable (sense of competence), which is consistent with the research. Preliminary regressions looking at the three independent variables in isolation found that well-being was a significant predictor of parenting sense of competence, accounting for 28% of the variance. Spirituality was examined next, and it was found that spirituality was not a significant predictor of parenting sense of competence, only accounting for 4% of the variance. Hope was entered in a regression equation and was found to be a significant predictor of parenting sense of competence, accounting for 24% of the variance.

A hierarchical regression was conducted next. The results of these analyses revealed that well-being was a significant predictor of parenting sense of competence, accounting for 27% of the variance. There was little change when Spirituality was entered into the regression, with this model still accounting for 26.6% of the variance. When all three variables were entered, hope, well-being and spirituality accounted for 29% of the variance. The inclusion of all three independent variables was significant and accounted for the greatest portion of the variance, 29%. The final step of the analysis involved running regressions to ascertain if well-being served as a moderator for hope and spirituality. The findings did not support well-being as a moderator.

Results of this study have implications for future research looking at predictors of parenting sense of competence in order to identify the strengths that best predict in order to devise the most thoughtful interventions for mothers raising children with autism.