COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on well-being and implicitly on the worsening of the psychological condition of people on a global scale. In education, the physical closure of schools has led to a rapid shift to distance learning, increasing the responsibility for learning on parents. They described difficulties in balancing responsibilities, student motivation, accessibility, and learning outcomes. More complex cases are those families with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Parental stress and the emotional well-being of parents of children with ASD have been affected by the pandemic. Thereby, the present study aims to investigate the impact of distance learning of children with autism spectrum disorder on the emotional well-being of their parents. Thus, the objective of the present study was to identify the relationship between fear of COVID-19, depression, state anxiety, affect, and difficulties in emotion regulation in parents with ASD during online school. In the present research, 48 parents (M = 37.52, SD = 6.05) meeting the inclusion criteria were selected for this study. The results showed significant relationships between most, especially: (a) fear of COVID-19 and state anxiety (r = .57, p < .000), depression (r = .36, p = .011), and negative affect (r = .35, p = .012).; (b) state anxiety and depression (r = .76, p < .000), difficulties in emotion regulation (r = .47, p < .001) and negative affect (r = .64, p < .000).; and (c) depression and difficulties in emotional regulation (r = .63, p < .000), and negative affect (r = .72, p < .000). Our preliminary findings suggest that distance learning of ASD children has a major impact on the emotional well-being of parents. Also, clinical and theoretical implications were discussed.

online school, autism spectrum disorder, parents, anxiety, well-being