The Effect of the Psychoeducational Group Family Education Program for Families of Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder on Parents: A Pilot Study

WOS: 000476612300002Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurobiological developmental deficiency which manifests itself with social interaction and communication disorder and repetitive behaviors and concerns. The individual with ASD have some adverse effects on the family. There are research results in the literature which report that the levels of stress and depression in parents of children with ASD are high. their perceptions of social support are low, and their family functioning is impaired. This study aims to investigate the effect of the Psychoeducational Group Family Education Program (PGFEP), developed by the researchers for families of children diagnosed with ASD within 0-2 years, on parents' stress, depression, social support perception, and family functions. The effect of the PGFEP was examined with a pilot study before the main implementation. This study was conducted with the pre-test post-test weak experimental design. Data were analyzed by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. When the data were analyzed, the PGFEP was observed to reduce the stress and depression levels of the parents and increase the level of perceived social support in general. However, it was observed that the program did not have a statistically significant effect on the family functions of the parents of children with ASD

Investigation of the Relationship Between the Burnout Level of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and ASD Symptom Level and Family Needs by Regression Analysis

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neuro-developmental disorder, which manifests itself with severe social interaction and communication disorder, social behavior, language, perceptual functions, repetitive behaviors and interests in the first years of life, which continues throughout life and displays differences in the appearance and level of symptoms due to various reasons from individual to individual. It is known in the literature that the participation of an individual, diagnosed with ASD with these characteristics, in the family, has significant effects on the family and the functioning of the family. In families that have a member diagnosed with ASD, it is known that the needs of the family increase, stress sources are varied, and family functioning is affected by this situation. There are also research results indicating that this situation causes depression and traumatic stress. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the burnout levels of parents of children diagnosed with ASD, and ASD symptom level, and family needs. For this purpose, data were collected from 273 parents using the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-2-TV (GARS-2-TV), Family Needs Survey (FNS), and Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI). Based on the collected data, the relationship between the GARS-2-TV and FNS subscale scores and the PBI total score was examined and reported by hierarchical regression analysis. As a result of the analyses, it was observed that the two subscales of the GARS-2-TV and the four subscales of the FNS were related to the PBI total score and explained 40% of the observed variance in the PBI total score

Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Related Variables in Families of Children with Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects and relationships of variables related to the children with disabilities and their parents as well as the diagnosis process and informing parents after the diagnosis and variables which might be related to the traumatic stress levels of the parents of children with disabilities on parents' traumatic stress levels. This study which was conducted as relational research included a total of 347 parents of children with disabilities. Data collection forms included personal information form, Traumatic Stress Symptom Scale, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The results showed that traumatic stress levels of parents of children with physical impairments were higher than other parents, there was a significant relationship between the time passed after the diagnosis and parents' traumatic stress levels; there was significant relationship between the parents' age and parents's traumatic stress levels; parents' traumatic stress levels didn't differ in terms of gender; traumatic stress levels of single parents were higher than married parents