Psychological Stresses and Coping Strategies among Parents with Autistic Children in Khartoum State (Special Education Centers)

Aim: The aim of this research is to investigate the psychological stress and coping strategies among parents of autistics in Khartoum State. The Descriptive research method was applied. Methods: Methods of data collection were the Psychological scale for Parents with Autistic Children and in-depth semi structured individual interviews. Results: The results indicated that coping strategies of parents enabled them to overcome the psychosomatic symptoms to a large extent while not being able to overcome the problems triggered in other dimensions. Parents adopted strategies for coping demonstrated in Faith and trust in Allah (100%), acceptance and dealing with the child positively showing positive emotions towards their autistic children (46%), gaining knowledge about ASD (38%), involving siblings (42%), and social support (42%). Forty-four percent (44%) of the sample tried to set future plans for their autistic children. The major problems were found to be the financial and educational problems that represented (100%). There is a significant difference in the coping strategies among parents according to parents’ gender in favor of males in psychosomatic symptoms (0.001) while significant difference is found in favor of females in autistics’ behavior (0.011) future (0.012) and financial and educational burden (0.011) and no significant difference is found between male and female parents in the other dimensions. There is a significant difference in the coping strategies among parents according to autistics’ gender in favor of autistic males in all dimensions. There is no significant correlation between coping strategies of autistics parents and their educational level in all dimensions. There is no significant difference in coping strategies among parents according to family type in all dimensions. Conclusion: Resilience is highlighted but also there is a need for formal support for families with autistic children as well as a free appropriate public education that meets autistic unique individual needs to lessen the burden they experience should be offered. Besides, building capacity programs and autism-oriented workshops for various groupings of family members to foster the development of coping skills they need as well as enrich their knowledge and understanding of the condition.Subject AreasPsychology