Effects of psycho-educational group program on the some psychological variables of parents whose the children with autistic spectrum disorders

According to special education literature, the stress and depression levels of parents who have children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) is higher than the stress and depression levels of the parents who have normally developing children. In addition, it is known that family functioning and percieved social support levels of parents with children that have ASD are lower when compared to other families. The aim of this research study is to apply and evaluate a psycho-educational group program which was developed by the researcher to decrease the stress and depression levels and to increase the family functioning and percieved social support levels of the parents of children with ASD in the last two years. A pre-test and post-test control group experimental design was used in the current study. Methods of the psycho-educational group program developed by researcher are (a) informational counselling, (b) small group discussions, (c) support groups practices, (d) psychological components of emotional awareness and effective communication, and (e) teaching the skills for managing the problem behaviors. Psycho-educational group program's content was developed using quantitative analysis. Qualitative data was collected by semi-structured interviews from parents of children with ASD in the last two years. Qualitative data was collected from seven mothers and two fathers in Denizli. As a result of qualitative analysis, psycho-educational group program content can be classified under five main headings: (a) The nature of autistic spectrum disorders, their causes and characteristics, (b) the legal rights of children with ASD and their families, (c) the parents' emotional awareness of disability, and (d) the ways to deal with problem behaviors of children with ASD, and (e) ASD effects on the family's structure and functions. Preliminary study of this research was done in Denizli with 11 participants (six mothers and five fathers of children with ASD were diagnosed in the last two years). Experimental application of the psycho-educational group program took four weeks with 33 participants who lived in Isparta and Antalya. Psycho-educational group program has 17 sessions which was conducted in four meetings. 34 participants participated in the control group. The control group participants lived in Denizli, Eskisehir and Tekirdag. The research data was analyzed by two-way ANOVA for mixed measures. The data analysis showed that the psycho-educational group program decreased the stress and depression levels of the experimental groups. At the same time, research findings manifested that the psycho-educational group program increased the level of percieved social support and the satisfaction level of percieved social support of experimental group participants. However, the psycho-educational group program did not have any effects on the participants? family functioning and structure of the family. As a result, the application of the psycho-educational group program yielded high levels of satisfaction from the experimental groups participants. Keywords: Autistic Spectrum Disorders, Parent Training, Psycho-Educational Group Program, Stress, Depression, Social Support and Family Functioning.