The Effect of Applied Group Training Given to Mothers With Children With Autism on Perceived Social Support, Depressive Symptoms and Self-compassion

Summary

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which can also be defined as a type of special need, is a congenital neurodevelopmental disorder whose symptoms are observed in early childhood. ASD, which has deficits in social communication and interaction as well as limited-repetitive behaviour patterns, starts in the early developmental stage and causes a significant impairment in areas of social functioning .

A child with autism causes serious anxiety and depression in the family for many reasons, including the uncertainty of the diagnosis, the severity and duration of the disorder, and the child's lack of compliance with social rules. ASD has devastating effects not only on the individual but also on carers . It is reported that mothers with a child with ASD experience psycho-social difficulties compared to parents with a normally developing child . Hyperactivity, mood problems, disturbances in sleep and eating patterns, obsessions and compulsive behaviours, and self-injurious behaviours of children with ASD make the parent-child relationship difficult. Due to the burden of care brought about by such findings and difficulties, the family begins to experience situations such as decreased quality of relationship between family members, educational problems, financial difficulties and future anxiety. There is a significant relationship between emotional and behavioural problems of children with ASD and anxiety and depression levels of their parents.

In addition to psychological symptoms, caregiver parents also experience limitations in daily life activities. The ability of mothers with children with autism to cope with unexpected situations is closely related to the social support they perceive. However, studies show that parents with children with autism have difficulties in entering and adapting to the society, and therefore, friends, neighbours and close environment relations from which they can get social support are weakened. Considering that supporting these families, especially mothers, both socially and spiritually can be important in alleviating the difficulties they experience and that mothers with autistic children are in a risk group in terms of receiving this support, it is understood how important the issue is.

Self-compassion is the individual's directing compassionate behaviours and attitudes towards himself/herself. Neff defines self-compassion as individuals being kind and compassionate towards themselves in difficult situations of inadequacy, failure and pain, accepting their negative emotions by being aware of them, and knowing that all kinds of challenging situations that can be experienced are related to being human. Self-compassion is recognised as one of the healthy ways of coping with difficult experiences and pain. It is stated that self-compassion is positively associated with coping strategies such as active coping, acceptance and reorganisation, and negatively associated with coping strategies such as mental-behavioural dissolution or rejection. In the findings of self-compassion-based studies conducted with parents who have children with disabilities in the literature, it was reported that as the level of self-compassion increases, parents' optimism levels increase, self-compassion has a negative relationship with burnout and a positive relationship with subjective well-being, and positive coping strategies increase as the level of self-compassion increases.

H0: The applied training programme has no effect on perceived social support, depressive symptoms and self-compassion.

H1: The applied training programme has an effect on perceived social support, depressive symptoms and self-compassion.

Sample of the research:The population of the study consists of caregivers who have children between the ages of 6-18 years with autism diagnosed with autism who are educated in 3 special education and rehabilitation centres in Kastamonu province and who undertake their primary care. Caregivers who brought their children to these centres for the purpose of education, who meet the research criteria and who voluntarily accept to participate in the research will be included in the sample. Power analysis was performed with the G\*Power 3.1 programme to determine the number of people to be included in the sample, and it was planned to include 48 caregivers, 24 in the experimental group and 24 in the control group.

Conditions

• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Parent

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

practical group training

It is understood how important the issue is when it is considered that supporting these families, especially mothers, both socially and psychologically can be important in alleviating the difficulties they experience and that mothers with children with autism are in a risk group in terms of receiving this support. The research was designed considering that the applied training we will provide will be effective in increasing social support and developing self-compassion for the primary caregivers of children and will reduce the level of depressive symptoms.

BEHAVIORAL

practical group training

practical group training

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Kastamonu University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Havva KAÇAN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DOCTOR · Kastamonu University

• Şevval YEYİT, Research Assistant · Kastamonu University

• Vasfiye Bayram Değer, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DOCTOR · Mardin Artuklu University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-02-15

Primary Completion

2025-02-28

Completion

2025-03-02

Countries

• Turkey (Türkiye)

Study Locations