The Effect of Training of Pivotal Response Treatment to Mothers of Autistic Children on Family Functioning

The present study was designed to evaluate the impact of training of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) to the mothers of autistic children on family functioning. Statistical popula-tion included all mothers of autistic children in Tehran.Twenty mothers selected as study sample by means of non-convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two control and experimental groups. Research design was pretest- post-test design with control group and follow-up. The experimental group was trained PRT for three months. Parents’ self-efficacy questionnaire, parental stress scale, family functioning and family satisfaction scale in this study were used as instruments for mea-suring family functioning. Results showed that training of PRT was significant to reduce maternal stress, increase self-efficacy and family func-tioning (p<0.05) and of no significant effect was observed in family satis-faction scale. PRT training was proved as effective in reducing stress and increasing self-efficacy and family functioning. It is recommended that this training, along with conventional methods in the field of autism benefited mothers because it could improvement family functioning.