Behavioral Parent Training and Psychological Problems in Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate the effect of parental behavior training of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder, on reducing anxiety, depression and stress in mothers. Methods: This research was an experimental study with a pretest, posttest, and a control group. The statistical population of this study consisted of all mothers who had children with autism disorder. The sample of the research was compromised of 30 mothers with autistic children who were selected through available sampling and were blind matched in the form of two groups based on different variables such as age, education and economic status. The research tools were Beck Depression Inventory- (BDI, II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) And Parenting Stress Index (PSI). The parents were trained during 9 sessions in the examination group, each of which lasted for 90 minutes. Finally, both groups answered to the questionnaires as posttest. The data were analyzed using ANCOVA test. Results: Results show the impact of experimental application on reducing the level of anxiety and depression of mothers in the experimental group compared to the control group (p 0/05). Parents’ behavioral training also led to reducing parenting stress in the examination group (p 0/05). Conclusion: In general, results show that mothers’ behavioral training will reduce their psychological problems and prevents parenting stress from increasing in mothers with autistic children.