Effect of parental skills-based psychoeducation intervention on parental stress index and severity of children with autism spectrum disorders: A pilot study

OBJECTIVE: Analyzing the effect of psychoeducation on parental stress index and the severity of children with autism spectrum disorders. METHODS: Participants in the study consisted of autism spectrum disorder children and their parents who were divided into 2 groups (treatment = 15 and control group = 20). Participants were given psychoeducation as many as 6 sessions for 14 weeks (7 weeks for each group). Participants were measured for the value of the childhood autism rating scale (CARS) and autism parenting stress index (APSI) pre-post psychoeducation. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the treatment group in terms of total CARS values (40.73 ± 7.17 vs −7.67 ± 4.91; p < 0.001), communications (5.60 ± 1.45 vs −4.73 ± 1.49; p = 0.001), social interactions (10.20 ± 2.18 vs 8.93 ± 2.66; p = 0.011), and psychomotor (18.33 ± 3.96 vs 14.27 ± 3.90; p < 0.001) before and after psychoeducation, whereas there were no significant differences in the control group (p > 0.05). In the treatment group, there were significant differences in total APSI values (17.33 ± 9.99 vs 12.20 ± 4.02; p = 0.001), social difficulties (8.73 ± 4.60 vs 6.00 ± 4.02; p = 0.002), and physical (4.13 ± 3.54 vs 2.27 ± 2.99; p = 0.013) before and after psychoeducation, while there were no significant differences in behavior (p = 0.443). There were no significant differences in the control group (p > 0.05). There was a significant influence between psychoeducation on parental stress index (p = 0.003) and the severity of children with autism spectrum disorders (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: There is a decrease in parental stress index and severity of children with autism spectrum disorders after parental psychoeducation intervention.