The Effect of a Family Counseling Program in Reducing Stress in Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

This study aimed to measure the effect of a family counselling program in reducing the level of psychological stress among mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To achieve the goals of the study, a counselling program based on the theory of behavioural and cognitive therapy was d. designed and the maternal stress scale, which was applied to the participants consisted of six domains. The indications of validity and reliability were verified. Thirty mothers made up the study sample, who were equally divided into two groups: an experimental group (n = 15) and a control group (n = 15).The findings revealed that there were statistically significant gender differences at the significance level (a≤0.05) for the level of psychological stress among mothers in the post-test. As the mean forfemales was (3.42) which is better than thatof males (3.04). The calculated (T) value was (-3.340), which is a statistically significant value. There were also statistically significant differences (a≤0.05) in favour of the experimental group. These results are consistent with studies that adopted the theory of behavioural and cognitive therapy in reducing psychological stress among mothers, and this is due to the active and effective participation in the program sessions, because mothers did not previously receive similar programs because they were suffering from psychological pressures, and no one would provide them with any support.The study suggested that mothers should permanently perform the counselling program exercises to lessen the effects of psychological stress.