*6.5. Limitations of the Study*

One important limitation of the present study is that there has been a period of six years between the two crises. We cannot exclude the possibility that the differences between the results in the two time periods are related to reasons other than the economic or COVID-19 crisis. Although in our sample the DSM-5 level of functioning of the youngsters remained almost the same, there is evidence that as the individuals with ASD become older their behavioral problems sometimes worsen. Parents have to face stressors associated with transitions across key developmental periods [71,72]. On the contrary, parents obtain the skills to manage problematic situations more effectively. Findings on the impact of children's age on the wellbeing of their parents have been inconsistent. Some studies revealed higher burden in parents of younger children [71,73–75], others suggest increasing stress with age [72,76], while others indicate no influence of age on parenting stress [11]. Although other factors might be important, we cannot ignore the fact that both crises had a perverse impact on the lives of Greek people and both periods were heavily characterized by this impact. Apart from being a limitation, the six years distance between the two crises can also be considered as an advantage since there was less of an overlap between the two periods. Another limitation of the study is the fact that we do not have data on the same cohort during a non-crisis period. Therefore, we can only extrapolate conclusions about differences in parenting during different types of crises and not about the parenting of these families under ordinary conditions. We must also consider the fact that our results apply mainly to mothers, who in the vast majority of cases were the main caregiver of their child. As such, we cannot conclude how different the impact is on fathers. In addition, our sample was not very large, nevertheless, it was a within-subjects comparison, which increases the rigorousness of our findings. Sampling biases should also be considered. The study's results depended on participants attending a particular ASD outpatient clinic, limiting the wide-range effects of the pandemic on families of children with ASD throughout the country. Finally, our data refer to the first two months of the "stay at home" period of the COVID-19 crisis. It will be very interesting to study the possible additive effects of the prolonged crisis as well as its long-term influence on the wellbeing and coping strategies of parents of individuals with ASD.

#### **7. Conclusions**

The findings of the present study indicate that the financial and pandemic crises might elicit different responses from the primary caregivers of individuals with ASD. In our sample, the nature of crisis influenced the sense of competence in their role as parents, facets of their quality of life, and the coping strategies they implemented. In line with findings from parents of both typically developing children and children with ASD, it seems that the lockdown was not a uniformly negative experience for the parents of children with ASD.

The differential responses imply, though, that particular needs have to be addressed during different types of crises. In our sample parents' sense of competence in their parental role, safety issues, accessibility to services, or participation in leisure were more influenced during an economic crisis. Maintaining access to social networks and adequate resources, and encouraging an internal locus of control, seemed to be more important during the physical and social distance period. Even during "ordinary" periods, factors such as social support, coping style, locus of control, self-efficacy, and positive family functions impact the resilience of families raising a child with developmental disabilities or autism. In times of crises, it seems even more important to turn our lenses to caregivers in addition to focusing on individuals with ASD and addressing their particular needs so as to enhance their resilience and ability to handle adversities.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization: K.P. and V.N.; Methodology: V.N., E.T. and K.P.; Formal analysis: C.T., I.-M.G. and V.N.; Data Curation: V.N., I.-M.G. and E.T.; Writing-Original Draft: K.P. and I.-M.G.; Writing-Review & Editing: G.K. and A.P.; Supervision: K.P., G.K. and A.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of "Aghia Sophia" Children's Hospital (841/05.05.2020).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed Consent was obtained from all patients involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors want to thank all the families that agreed to participate in the study during this difficult period of time.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declared no potential conflict of interest.
