The Effectiveness of Group Positive Parenting Program on Parental Stress of Mothers of Children with Autism Disorder

The goal of present study was to investigate the effectiveness of «group positive parenting program» on parental stress of mothers of children، aged six to twelve، with autism disorder in 2012 (1391 s. c.). This semi-experimental study was conducted as pre-test and post-test with control group. Statistical population included all methers of children with autism disorder in Isfahan. From among these mothers، 30 mothers were randomly selected and put into the experimental and control groups of 15 persons each. The parenting Stress index (PSI) questionnaire (Abidin، 1990) was the instrument of this study. Firstly، the pretest was conducted on the two groups. Then، the experimental group was exposed to an eight-session training of group positive parenting program based on Sanders pattern; these sessions were weekly held in group. At the end، the post-test was applied on. The results of Covariance analysis indicated that group positive parenting program has signification decreased parenting stress in the realm of parents (P<0. 05) and the realm of child (P<0. 05) and there is a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of the parenting stress of the mothers of children with autism disorder (P<0. 05). the mean for stress in the experimental group was lower than the mean of the control group. Also، the mean of competences in the experimental group was higher than that of the control group. Thus، the effectiveness of group positive parenting program on decreasing the level of parental stress of mothers of children with autism disorder was confirmed.