Investigation Into The Stress-Coping Levels of Parents of Children with Autism Who Receive Physical Education

Abstract

The aim of the study is to evaluate the demographic characteristics, stress and coping with stress levels of families with children with autism who receive services from autism sports club associations depending on various factors. A total of 134 people, 97 women (49,65±6,15) and 37 men (49,40±6,28) participated in the study. Personal Information Form (PIS), Stress Coping Styles Scale (SCSS) and Parent Stress Scale (PSS) were used as data collection tools. SPSS 22 package program was used to analyze the data obtained. Percentage and frequency values were used to analyze demographic characteristics. The t-test was used for the gender variable of the SPSAS, One-Way Anova test was used for all other variables and Post Hoc Tukey test was used to determine the source of the difference. As a result of the study, there was no statistically significant difference between the sub-dimensions of the SBSAS according to the variables of gender, educational status and gender of the child with autism (p>0.05); when analyzed according to the age variable, a significant difference was found between the groups aged 25-35 years (2.66±0.58) and 45 years and over (2.30±0.71) in the helpless approach sub-dimension (p<0.05). A statistically significant difference was found in families with male children (50.29±5.66) in the comparison of the PBSS according to gender variable (p<0.05). According to the results of the study, it was found that parents felt more helpless as they got older and parents with male children with autism experienced more stress than parents with female children with autism.