Wellbeing in children with and without DSA – Focus on psychopathological aspects in the parent

“According to the definition of the WHO (World Health Organization), well-being means: “”The emotional, mental, physical and spiritual state of well-being that allows people to achieve and maintain their personal potential in society””. Over the years, the concept of well-being has undergone various modifications and expansions which have led to a more complete vision, no longer focused on the idea of ​​the absence of disease but as a state of good physical, mental and psychological health. Well-being is determined by a series of internal and external factors that impact emotions and constructs such as the sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem. Recent studies on Quality of Life in developmental age have demonstrated how psychological well-being influences academic performance and the ability to adapt to social and work contexts. In this work it was decided to analyze well-being in children with specific learning difficulties by identifying three macro-areas: school well-being, Quality of Life and psychological aspects of the child and psychopathological aspects in the parent. These areas were analyzed by administering structured questionnaires aimed at both parents and children. The general objective of this research is to evaluate the psychological and academic well-being of children with learning difficulties and compare the results with those of children in the same age group with typical development. Specifically, in this paper, the psychopathological aspects in parents were taken into consideration since according to some scientific evidence the child's maturation is influenced by parental style and family habits. The child's temperament, physical characteristics and developmental history interact with the parent's personality characteristics and cognitive style. In the literature there is a paucity of material regarding this problem; however, it emerges that stress, anxiety or depression only concern the parental sphere and not the psychological sphere of the individual himself. With this paper we try to investigate the comparison between aspects of anxiety and depressive mood in adults between a group of parents of children with DSA and a control group. Furthermore, correlations are sought between the data collected and these psychopathological aspects."