Stress and Coping Patterns among Parents Having Children with Autism | ||
| Zagazig Nursing Journal | ||
| Article 10, Volume 8, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2012, 2012, Pages 140-154 PDF (87.09 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/znj.2012.38882 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Safia Ragab El-Sebaie1; Youser Mohammed El-Masri2; Sorayia Ramadan Abd El-fattah3; Nagwa Ahmed El-Shafie4 | ||
| 1Demonstrator in psychiatric & mental health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Zagazig University | ||
| 2Assist. Prof. of psychiatric & mental health nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Mansoura University | ||
| 3Professor of psychiatric & mental health, Faculty of Nursing, Ain Shams University, | ||
| 4Prof. of pediatric medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University. | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Background: Parents of children with autism may suffer high levels of stress, resulting in disruption in lifestyle and relationship, deprivation of human need, and failure to act in ways to elimination the cause of the distress. Moreover, family stress can contribute to unfavorable prognosis. This study was conducted to assess the stress and coping patterns among parents having children with autism using a cross-sectional analytic design at the Child Clinic of the El-Abassia Governmental Hospital for mental health, and the Special Needs Health Care Center in Ain Shams University. It included a convenience sample of 80 parents and their autistic children. The tools used to collect the data were the Child's Medical and Developmental Data Sheet, the Parental Coping Strategy Inventory, and the Parenting Stress Index. Data collection was from October 2009 to April 2010. The study findings showed that 77.5% of the parents were coping with the situation, and 96.3% had high total stress. Coping increased with increasing birth order (p=0.002), and mother education (p=0.03). Stress score had negative significant correlations with child IQ (r=-0.479), and father education (r=- 0.231), and a positive correlation with family size (r=0.230) and the time lapse between symptoms and diagnosis (r=0.284). Recommendations: it is recommended to include the assessment of parents' stress level as a part of the screening and assessment of children with ASD. Formation of support groups must be encouraged, with the nurses exerting more effort in this. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| autism; Parental Stress; Coping | ||
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