The Correlation Study Between Self-Compassion And Parenting Stress Of Parents With Autism

Autistic children’s parents,as a special group,bear tremendous parental pressure.If the pressure cannot be effectively alleviated,it will seriously affect their mental health.As a relatively new psychological concept,self-compassion is high value in theory and application.It is found that self-compassion can predict the level of mental health.To verify the relationship between self-compassion and parental stress,and to understand the impact of self-compassion on parental stress,a new method is provided to alleviate parental stress of autistic children.In the study,240 parents of autistic children in an Autism Center in Nanchang City are investigated with the Self-empathy Questionnaire and the Simple Parental Stress Scale to explore the relationship between self-empathy and parental stress.Self-compassion and parental stress of parents of autistic children are intervened by self-compassion group psychological counseling.The main conclusions of the study are as follows:(1)The self-sympathy of parents of autistic children is above the medium level.There are significant differences in the total score of self-compassion among four demographic variables of education level,family monthly income,medical model and time of diagnosis of childhood diseases.There are significant differences in each factor of self-compassion among demographic variables of single child,education level,family monthly income,family type,medical model and time of diagnosis of childhood diseases.(2)Parental stress level of autistic children’s parents is very high.There are significant differences in the total score of parental stress in employment status,education level,family monthly income,medical treatment and disease severity;there are significant differences in other factors,such as gender,employment status,education level,family monthly income,medical treatment model and treatment time.(3)Self-compassion is negatively correlated with parental stress.Parental stress of autistic children is negatively correlated with self-friendliness,general sense of humanity and mindfulness,and positively correlated with self-criticism,isolation and overidentification.The total score of self-compassion can significantly predict the level of parental stress.(4)Group psychological counseling for 8 weeks can significantly improve the self-compassion level of parents of autistic children,and which effectively relieves their parental pressure.