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The aim of this study was to analyze the quality of life of primary caregivers of people with ASD. 50 caregivers of people with ASD aged between 2 and 35 years participated in this study. Besides the quality of life, coping strategies and parental stress were also evaluated. The results showed that (1) parental stress, coping strategies and quality of life were not significantly associated with the developmental stage of the person with ASD; (2) the quality of life in the psychological, social and environmental domains is worse in caregivers with levels of parental stress clinically significant; and (3) the quality of life in the psychological domain is better among those using more adaptive coping strategies, such as social support or positive reappraisal. On the contrary, the use of coping strategies such as aggressive reaction, avoidance or emotional difficulties are associated with a poorer quality of life in the psychological, social and environmental domains Keywords: quality of life, parental stress, coping, ASD.

This paper aims to analyze the influence of parents’ stress level and their conceptions about the education of their children with developmental disorders based on the results obtained from the point of view of the recovery of the difficulties or disorders in Early Care Service. To accomplish this, 23 families (father and mother) completed the short version of CIP (Palacios, 1988) and the short version of the Parenting Stress Index (Solís &Abidin, 1995). Furthermore, these data were related to those regarding the intervention standards, the parents’ educational level, the timing in achieving the goals of the early care program, the classification and the severity of the disorder. The results show that the children’s recovery from the disorders is greatly related to lower levels of defensive response on the part of the parents associated with the level of perceived stress, as well as with modern conceptions of their children’s developmental process.