Effectiveness of parenting skills parent education program for parents having children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study aims to determine the effects of parents skill training program on parenting skills, quality of life, stress, anxiety, depression, and coping skills of parents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children. On the other hand, the validity and reliability of the Parenting Skills Scale (PSS) developed in the study were tested. A quasi-experimental design with the pre-test-post-test experimentcontrol group was used in the study. Thirty-two parents with ASD children aged 6- 12 constituted the study group. The Parenting Skills Scale (PSS), Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale (BCFQOL), DASS-42 Scale, and Turkish Ways of Coping Scale (TWCS) were implemented to the determined experimental and control groups as pre-tests. The Parenting Skills Education Program developed by the researcher was implemented seven-session for the experimental group online. Then, the same scales were implemented in the experimental and control groups as a post-test. Non-parametric statistical analysis were used in the analysis of the research data. The data were analyzed with SPSS 25.0 package program. Mann Whitney U Test was used to examine whether there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores between the experimental and control groups. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was implemented to examine which measurement pairs had a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test comparisons of the experimental and control groups. It has been determined that the PSS developed by the researcher is a valid and reliable measurement tool. In addition, it was concluded that the Parenting Skills Education Program was effective in improving parenting skills, increasing the quality of family life, reducing stress, anxiety, and depression levels, and increasing the coping levels of parents with ASD children. KEYWORDS: Autism spectrum disorder, Parent education, Parenting skills, Family quality of life, Stress, anxiety and depression, Coping