The relationship between the percepted level of socialsupport and level of hopelesness in mother of autistc children

Thepurpose of thisresearch is toanalyzetherelationshipbetweensocialsupportperceptionlevelandhopelessnesslevel of motherswhohavechildrenwithautism. Inaccordancewiththispurpose, therelationshipbetweensocialsupportperceptionlevel ( familysupport, friendsupport, privatepersonsupport) andhopelessnesslevel (feelingaboutthefuture, loss of motivation, expectationaboutthefuture) has beenexaminedwithinthisresearch. Thesample of theresearchconsists of 100 motherswithautisticchildrenwhoarereceiving a specialeducation in variousprivateeducationandrehabilitationcenterswhicharesubsidiary of Ministry of Education (MOE) withintheboundaries of thecity of İstanbul. A "Sociodemographic Information Form", developedbytheresearcher, has beenusedso as toreceivepersonalinformation of motherswhohaveautisticchildren. Theperception of socialsupport of mothers is evaluatedthroughtheuse of MultidimensionalScale of PerceivedSocialSupport ( MSPSS) that has beenimprovedbyZimetand his/her colleguesandadaptedintoTurkishbyEkerandArkar (1995). BeckHopelessnessScale, adaptedintoTurkishbySeber (1991), has beenusedtodeterminethehopelessnesslevels of motherswhohavechildrenwithautism. As a result of theresearch, significantrelationsbetweensocialsupportlevelperceivedbymotherswithautisticchildrenandtheirsubscaleshavebeendeterminedalongwithsignificantrelationsbetweenthelevel of hopelessnesstheyfeelandtheirsubscales. Throughoutthestatisticalanalysis, it has beenfoundoutthat as thelevel of mothers' perceivedsocialsupportincreases, thelevel of hopelessnesstheyfeeldecreases. Theconsistency of thefindingsrevealedthroughtheresearchwiththeliteratureandothervariablesthatarelikelytoinfluencetheresultshavebeendebatedandseveralsuggestionshavebeenpresented. KeyWords : Mothers, Autism, PerceivedSocialSupport, Hopelessness.