Pages: 23-32

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to compare the cognitive flexibility, resilience and life expectancy of parents with autistic children and the parents of healthy children. Methodology: The method was descriptive with causal-comparative design. The population was all parents of children with autism admitted to the treatment and rehabilitation centers for pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) patients in Tehran in 2017, who were 200 people. Non-probability convenient sampling method was used and 50 mothers with autistic children who had at least high school diploma, willingness, and informed consent to participate in the study were selected as the sample. For the normal-group sample, a sample of 50 people was selected in proportion to the demographic characteristics of the population with disorder. The data were collected using the standard questionnaires of Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI) of Dennis and Vander Wal (2010), Conner-Davidson Resilience scale (CD-RISC) (2003), and Miller Hope Scale (MHS) (1988). Descriptive statistics such as mean and variance and inferential statistics such as multivariate analysis of variance were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that cognitive flexibility, resilience and life expectancy of autistic children's parents differed from the parents of healthy children and their status in these variables is lower than that of the normal children's parents. Conclusion: According to the results, one can conclude that children's suffering from autism can have negative effects on their parents' psychological status, especially in terms of cognitive flexibility, resilience and life expectancy.