The Combat Soldier/Autism Connection

“Did you know? Mothers of children with autism experience stress levels similar to that of combat soldiers. A study said so.”

For a long time this information has been circulating the web, and has been repeated in posts and articles without a lot of reference. I was curious about the origins. Where did this notion come from? Not that I’m arguing with it. I’m not. I mean, it sounds accurate, right? And relatable to my personal experience. But having never actually been a combat soldier, I can only imagine what that’s like.

After a brief search I found the original study. It was first published in 2009 in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders by Marsha Mailick Seltzer, et. al. You can access the original article here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2837763/ .

Just to save time, I will tell you that the original study is complicated and brilliant, and it’s written in APA format. For those that are not familiar with this form of writing, it’s the standard way that research papers, journal articles, and the like are written in the scientific community. I had to write my fair share of APA papers back in the day. I don’t miss it.

The phrase that gets bandied about on the internet that says “mothers of children with autism experience stress levels similar to that of combat soldiers” is a bit misleading when taking into account the original study. The original study is titled “Maternal Cortisol Levels and Behavior Problems in Adolescents and Adults with ASD”. There were different control groups in this study, and mothers of children with autism who presented with clinically significant behaviors were contrasted with mothers of children who didn’t.

This isn’t a meta-analysis or really even a summary. I’m writing this to point out that commonly held assumptions have their own origin points, and that when you actually search for facts, you may be surprised by what you find. The study found that not only did mothers of these individuals have stress levels similar to soldiers in combat; the stress levels were similar to that of parents whose children have cancer, to Holocaust survivors, and to people suffering from PTSD. This means that not only did they exhibit similar levels of physiological stress, they also exhibited similar levels of psychological stress (Seltzer, et. al, 2009). Indeed, a separate study found that parents of children with ASD who exhibit those challenging behaviors have a greater indication of PTSD symptoms than parents of children who don’t (Roberts, et. al, 2014).

What is the conclusion we can draw, when taking all of this into account? In my role as a teacher and drawing on my own experience, I try to keep all of this in mind when I communicate with the parents of my students. Not all children with ASD have severe behavioral issues. But for the ones that do, their parents experience lives a lot like mine was, where they really are just trying to manage life in the day to day. School is the last thing on their mind, other than offering them a little respite so they can take a nap, run an errand, or just have some peace. Parenting a child like this asks a lot. It requires a lot. The physical and psychological stress are real and have significant impacts on social, emotional, mental, and physical aspects of adult life daily and in the long term. So that paper I needed that parent to fill out and return the next day and they didn’t? No big deal. I get it. That phone call they didn’t answer? It’s fine. That email they sent at 2am? I’m sure they had their reasons.

The other question is why is it like this in the first place? For those who don’t have a child like this, or aren’t familiar with the more severe aspects of Level 3 autism (yes, there are levels), this article may seem confusing and create far more questions than answers. Why does it cause this kind of stress, is it really that bad, and unfortunately for some ill-informed rubes, may even evoke the question, why can’t you just spank them? (Yes, some people ask this.)

Answering these questions would create a whole other article. Suffice to say, sometimes when a child has severe autism, their ability to navigate their environment in a functional way is severely limited, and this can create a lot of challenges; namely, behaviors born out of frustration and inability to communicate effectively.

Mothers of children with autism who exhibit clinically significant negative behaviors display psychological and physiological stress similar to that of combat soldiers, Holocaust survivors, parents of children with cancer, and individuals with PTSD (Seltzer, et.al, 2009). In sum, they’re the most significant kind of badasses, level 3 badasses, take no prisoners, do what it takes, we’ll fight again tomorrow badasses, and they don’t need a study to prove it.

References

Roberts, A. L., Koenen, K. C., Lyall, K., Ascherio, A., & Weisskopf, M. G. (2014). Women's postraumatic stress symptoms and autism spectrum disorder in their children. Research in autism spectrum disorders, 8(6), 608-616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2014.02.004

Seltzer, M. M., Greenberg, J. S., Hong, J., Smith, L. E., Almeida, D. M., Coe, C., & Stawski, R.S. (2010). Maternal cortisol levels and behavior problems in adolescents and adults with ASD. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 40(4), 457-469. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0887-0