Family burden as a predictor of family stress of mothers with autism spectrum disorder children

In this research, the aim is to determine how the family burdens (economic burden, feeling of inadequacy, social burden, physical burden, emotional burden and time requirement aspects) of the mothers with autistic children predict family stress (lack of function, pessimism, family and parental problems). The research was conducted on the 108 mothers with autistic children who go to 3 private training and rehabilitation centers in Seyhan and Çukurova districts in Adana. The data related to family stresses was obtained from "(ASDÖ) Rating Scale of Family Stress"(Kaner, 2001). The data related to family burden was obtained from "(AYDÖ) Rating Scale of Family Burden"(Sarı veBaşbakkal, 2008). On the other hand, the personal data was obtained by using "Personal Data Sheet" prepared by the researcher. The Pearson Correlation Analysis and Multivariate Regression Analysis was used on the analysis of the data. At the end of the research, it was seemed that the total score of Rating Scale of Family Burden of mothers have positively significant relationship with the total scores of Rating Scale of Family Stresses. The AYDÖ and the sub-dimensions (economic burden, feeling of inadequacy, social burden, phsycal burden, emotional burden and time requirement aspects) were determined as variables which contribute to explain the dimensions of general family stress and pessimism significantly. The dimensions of feeling of inadequacy and physical burden of the family burden have negatively significant relationship with lack of function of family stress at the medium level. Besides it was found that there is no any relationship between the family burden and its sub-dimensions and family and parental problems. According to results, the family stress of mothers with autistic children could be predicted by using the dimensions of feeling of inadequacy and emotional burden of the AYDÖ. The dimension of pessimism of family stress could also be predicted by using the dimensions of feeling of inadequacy, time requirement aspects and emotional burden. Moreover, the dimensions of parental and family problems of family stress could be predicted by taking into consideration of the dimension of emotional burden. Finally, the dimension of lack of function could not be forecasted with the family burden and its sub-dimensions. Key words: Autism spectrum disorder, family stress, family burden, mother.