Coping Strategies and Stress in Mothers with Autistic Children in Comparison with Mothers with Normal Children

This research aims to investigate stress and coping strategies of mothers with autistic children in comparison with mothers with normal children.The population of the research is all mothers with children in Tehran.Participants of the study consist of 72 mothers (36 mothers with autistic children and 36 mothers without autistic children) selected by means of non-convenience sampling. Research instruments applied in order to assess the psychological status of the subjects were: Gilliam autism rating scale; Child behavior checklist; Questionn-aire on resources and stress; Coping skills checklist and demographical sc-ale. Findings of the study reveal that there is a significant difference between two the groups of mothers in parenting stress and coping strategies (emotion-focused and problem-focused) variab-les; however, there was no significant difference between non-effective cop-ing strategies of the two groups. Also there is a significant relationship bet-ween parenting stress and emotion-focused coping strategies. But there is no significant relationship between parenting stress and problem-focused coping strategies. Taken together, the severity of autistic symptoms of the children show a significant correlation with levels of stress and emotion-focused coping strategies in mothers with autistic children. In fact, it can explain 66 % of mothers’ stress.