Study on the effect of spiritual development support program on hopelessness, religious coping and psychological well-being levels of parents who have children with autism spectrum disorder

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of spiritual development support program on hopelessness, religious coping and psychological well-being levels of parents who have children with autism spectrum disorder using quantitative and qualitative methods. The study was designed according to the sequential descriptive design, which is one of the mixed research designs. The quantitative dimension of the study is based on an experimental design of pre-test, post-test and follow-up test model, with experimental and control groups. In the qualitative dimension of the study, individual interviews were conducted with the parents who participated in the Spiritual Development Support Program. The study group consists of 30 parents (15 experimental - 15 control). Data for the study were collected through the Beck Hopelessness Scale, Brief Religious Coping Scale, Psychological Well-being Scale, personal information form and semi-structured interview form. Non-parametric Mann-Whitney U Test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test were used in order to analyze quantitative data. Qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive analysis. During the experimental process, no procedure was applied to the control group while spiritual development support program consisting of 10 sessions was applied to the experimental group. According to the quantitative findings of the study, there was a significant decrease in hopelessness and negative religious coping levels, and a significant increase in positive religious coping and psychological well-being levels among the parents who participated in the Spiritual Development Support Program compared to the parents in the control group after the program. However, while the decrease in hopelessness levels and the increase in positive religious coping and psychological well-being levels among parents persisted in the follow-up measurements, the decrease in negative religious coping levels didn't. According to the qualitative results of the study, the parents in the experimental group expressed that they give meaning to their lives in the context of love, responsibility and self-acceptance. The participants indicated that thanks to the program, they learned about psychosocial and spiritual support resources for coping with hopelessness, became aware of negative emotions, thoughts and behaviors caused by cognitive distortions and resolved their spiritual conflicts which helped them to improve their problematic relationships with their children.