الفهرس 
Definition of autismOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Autism is defined as a spectrum of neurodevelopmental
disorders, present from very early time, which upset the
development of social behavior and communication. The
disorder persists throughout life and co-occurring neurological
or psychological difficulties are frequent. Regardless of
advances in our understanding of symptoms, the causes stay
generally unspecific and the most valuable intervention remain
vague.
The main goals of treatment are to lessen associated
family deficits and family distress, and to increase quality
of life and functional independence. The parents having
children with autism suffer from high level of stress,
resulting in disruption in life style and relationship,
deprivation of human need, and failure to act in ways to
eliminate the cause of stress. Moreover, family stress can
contribute to unfavorable prognosis. While parents have a
better insight into their child’s needs, can understand their
behavior and may create an autism friendly environment.
Despite the advantages of an early diagnosis, autism often
remains undetected and thus untreated. The study aimed at:
Assess psychosocial problems among parents having
children with autism.
Assess coping strategies among parents having
children with autism.
Assess the relation between psychosocial problems
and coping strategies.
Research question:
The study is based on answered the following questions:
What are psychosocial problems among parents
having children with autism?
What are the coping strategies among parents having
children with autism?
What’s the relation between psychosocial problems
and coping strategies among parents having children with
autism?
Research setting:
1. The study was conducted in autism outpatient clinic at
El-Abbassia Mental Health Hospital.
2. Al Demerdash university hospital (Institute of
psychiatric medicine).
3. Outpatient clinic at Fayoum University Hospital. Subjects of the study:
The whole sample was formed 80 of parents having a
children with autism disorders. Data collection lasted for 5
months from the beginning of January 2016 to the end of
May 2016.
The tools used for the study consist of:
Data were collected using the following tools:
1- (A) Interview questionnaire sheet about socio
demographic and clinical characteristics data sheet for
children and their parents (Appendix I):
It was constructed by researcher, this section
included brief personal profile question about parents and
Autistic child.
For child: It include name, age, gender, number of
his\her sibling, degree of disorder, and onset of disorder as
well as the family history of autism.
For parents: It includes age, sex, and level of
education, occupation, as well as parents residence.
(B) Interview questionnaire sheet about psychosocial
problems among parents having children with autism:
It was constructed by researcher, to assess
psychosocial problems faced parents having children with
autism.2- Parental coping strategies inventory (PCSI)
(Appendix II):
It was constructed by (Yeh, 2001) and developed by
researcher to measure the coping strategies among parents
having children with autism. The scale consisted of 61
items for each items, parents are presented with four graded
response: Strongly disagree, disagree, agree, and strongly
agree.
Pilot study:
The pilot study was conducted on eight parents
having children with autism. They represent 10% of the
total sample. Those parents were excluded from the actual
study sample.
The main findings of the present study could be
summarized as follows:
An analysis of socio-demographic characteristics showed
that majority of parents shared of autism children’s
information was mothers. Mean mother’s age were
around early thirties, while Mean father’s ages were
around early fourteen. All fathers were workers while
majority of mothers were not working. More than half of
fathers and mothers were highly educated. More than
three quarters of families were living in urban.It is also found that mean children age were around five
while mean duration of autism diagnosis around three.
Also More than three quarters of children were males.
Less than one quarter of children were twin. Mean
brothers number and sisters number were (1.1±0.6, 1.6±
0.9 and 2.6±1.3) respectively, which mean of family
order (1.8±1.2), the majority (61.3%) of Autistic child
were first born child (6.3%) of them middle child, while
(32.4%) the last child.
An analysis illustrate that rang of Autistic grade less than
one fifth of children were severe grade. Less than one
quarter of child have family history of autism
An analysis of more than half of parents sometimes have
psychological problems as feel that their autistic child
distracted easily and has concentration difficulty, their
child moody behavior and the parents suffer from lack of
interest in all matters and people, reluctant to make any
decision, hardly concentrate on anything also change in
sleeping and appetite.
In addition to more than half of parents sometimes suffer
from social problems as embarrassed from their child
action and financial problems as high cost of medication and rehabilitation center and unavailability of qualified
specialists to deal with their children.
On the other hand most frequent coping strategy used by
parents as maintaining an optimistic state of mind
followed by increasing religious activities, social
support. At the other extreme coping through challenge
was the least frequently used.
There is highly statistically significant relation between
coping strategies and psychosocial problems.
- In the light of the study findings, it is recommended to
include educational programs to increase parents’
knowledge and awareness of the nature of autism and
the impact of having children with autism on the future
outcome of their children.
- Research to identify effectiveness of nursing
interventions to enhancing the use of coping strategies
among parents of autistic children.
- Programs for parents of children with autism such as
stress management technique.