| Objectives To investigate the current status and influencing factors of posttraumatic growth(PTG) in parents of children with autism.Methods A cross-sectional study was used in the study. All members of a convenience sample of 92 parents of children with autism completed self-report measures of Posttraumatic Growth Inventory(PTGI), Social Support Rating Scale(SSRS), Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire(SCSQ), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale(CD-RISC) and background information. SPSS(version 17.0) was used for statistic description. The statistical methods include statistical description, T-test, Analysis of Variance(ANOVA), Pearson’s correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis.Results 1. Totally 99 patients meeting the inclusion criteria were investigated, only 92 questionnaires were retracted, so the effective collect rate was 92.92%. Most participants were mothers, which was 69. Fathers were 23. The mean age of parents was at 25~47 years old, with average(33.56±4.57) years. A total of 16 were educated from less than high school, 12 parents had completed high school, 11 parents had obtained junior college degrees and 53 parents had bachelor’s degree or higher. Boys with autism were 69, girls with autism were 23. The mean age was 51.89 months old(51.89±12.89 months). The time since autism diagnosis ranged from 2 to 48 months, with a median of 18.29±12.45 months. Numbers of children with light and moderate level autism were 64, and 28 were at severe level. 2. The average PTGI score in this study was 61.52±17.09. It showed that subscale score from high to low in the order: spiritual changes(4.21±1.50), appreciation of life(4.18±1.18), changed relationships(2.84±0.85), personal strength(2.53±0.80) and new possibilities(2.10±0.88) 3. The score range of social support was 25~52 and the average score of it wast(38.55±5.90), which is lower than parents of the normal children(P<0.05).4. The coping style of parents of children with autism, positive coping average scores were(1.80±0.43), negative coping average scores were(1.01±0.53), which was lower than the score of negative coping of national norm(P<0.001). 5. The average score of resilience of parents of children with autism was(64.61±14.92), which was significantly lower than that of parents of normal children(P<0.001). 6. Used the post-traumatic growth score as dependent variable, multiple linear regression was conducted to asses possible associated factors. Four variables were entered into the regression model: resilience, social support, objective support, gender, positive coping. They could explain 54.4 % of the total variance in PTG(P<0.05).Conclusions Posttraumatic growth existed in the parents of children with autism, which was at the middle level. The social support and resilience levels of parents of children with autism were lower than those of normal children’s parents’, and they would like to use negative coping style. Parents’ gender, social support, positive coping and resilience are main influencing factors of posttraumatic growth, nursing staff should strengthen the parents of autistic children especially psychological counseling to guide its mother, take positive and effective coping strategies, improve the level of social support, strengthen the resilience level, in order to promote the parents of posttraumatic growth, as to improving their physical and mental health. |
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