הקֶשר בין תחושת הלחץ שחווים הורים לילדים עם אוטיזם והמשאבים של הורים אלה לבין דפוסי התמודדותם

Autism has received a great deal of attention in the last two decades. In light of the pervasive and complicated nature of the disorder, a major challenge facing educators is to enhance the ability of the parents of autistic children to cope with the disorder successfully. This study examines the contribution of stress and resources to predicting the coping strategies employed by parents of autistic children. The theoretical framework combines theories of family stress with cognitive theories of stress management. Correlations among parental stress, parents ׳ personal, family, and social resources, their perception of parenting type, and their coping strategies were examined. The study sample consisted of 176 parents of children with autism aged 6 to 16; these parents responded to structured questionnaires employed in earlier studies. Findings show that there was a significant correlation between parents ׳ coping strategies and the level of stress. The various resources revealed the role of stress resulting from parenting an autistic child in predicting the coping strategy. In most cases, the impact was direct, while in others, it was dependent on certain variables – pressure and social resources being the main predictors of coping via reliance on religion. Stress and personal and social resources tended to explain active coping strategies. The findings have implications (1) for therapists – constructing intervention programs; (2) for educators – developing training programs; and (3) for research – devising additional parameters for predicting coping strategies.