Comparison of theory of mind, attachment and emotion regulation strategies of mothers having children with asd and mothers of typically developed children

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between mothers of autistic and Normally Developing (NGG) children with ToM functions, attachment styles and emotion regulation skills. The universe of the study will be mothers of children with autism and mothers of NGG children. A survey is planned for the mothers of OIZ children in the Perception Aba Therapy Center and Mavi İlmek Special Education and Rehabilitation Center. In this study, data were collected through questionnaires to be applied. The control group to be formed by NGG children in the study consists of the mothers of children who study at various primary schools with students of similar age. Within the scope of the study, 56 mothers with autism and 53 mothers with NGG children were included in the study. For the research, questionnaires will be applied to mothers of children with autism to measure the research variables. The questionnaire was administered to the participants whose informed consents were obtained before, numerical data related to their responses were entered and the data entered was evaluated on the computer using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 23) software. Descriptive statistical methods will be used to examine the demographic variables of the participants. In order to examine the relationship between research variables and the level of differentiation in terms of demographic variables, in the case of normal distribution of the sample, "Independent Sample t Test" was applied for variables with double independent groups. If it did not show normal distribution, Mann Whitney U Test and Kruskal Wallis H Test were used. Pearson Correlation was applied to examine the relationship. In line with the findings, no significant difference was found between mothers with autistic children and mothers with normally developing children in terms of theory of mind functions. One of the difficulties in emotion regulation, the openness sub- dimension is higher in mothers with autistic children; Non-acceptance and strategies sub-dimensions were found to be significantly higher in mothers with normally developing children. According to the correlation findings, a negative correlation was found between the age of mothers with autistic children and the avoidant attachment sub-dimension. It is thought that the findings of the study provide important findings in terms of understanding the differences in the relationships between attachment styles, mind reading functions, and emotional regulation difficulties of mothers with children diagnosed with autism and mothers with normal development. In further studies, it is thought that research can be conducted with larger sample groups with similar characteristics in terms of demographic characteristics. In addition, it is thought that the findings of the research on the implementation of psychosocial interventions for mothers who are primary caregivers in addition to the education of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, defined as children with special needs, may be helpful.