The Study Of The Status And Functional Mechanism Of Social Support Of Parents Of Children With Autism

Social support,which is the instrumental,emotional,and informational assistance or support from relatives,friends or important others through interpersonal interactions,meets the needs of daily life,improves the ability of adaption,and protects the physical and mental health of individuals when they are confronted with stressful situations.The problem how individual recovery or growth by themselves from negative life events,such as trauma,has drawn a lot of attention in this field,with the development of positive psychology.Parents of children with autism face the acute stress caused by the diagnosis of the child and the chronic stress caused by long-term care,therefore,how to help parents of children with autism to get social support which meets their needs during the process of care can not only develop the ability of benefit-finding of traumatic events of parents,but also effectively improve their family quality of life.In conclusion,the research on social support of parents of children with autism has important theoretical significance and practical value on this background.The purpose of this research is to explore the status and functional mechanism of social support of parents of children with autism.Therefore,588 parents of children with autism from children’s rehabilitation institutions in Zhejiang,Shandong and Henan province are measured on basic information questionnaire and Social Support Rating Scale to investigate their status and differences on demographic variables of social support.Then,use The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory and The Chinese version of the Beach Center FQOL Scale in order to analyze the relationship among social support,posttraumatic growth and family quality of life of parents of children with autism and explore the functional mechanism of social support which influence the posttraumatic growth and family quality of life of parents of children with autism.The results of the research indicated:(1)On one hand,parents of children with autism received most is instrumental support,followed by emotional support,the least support for the information.One the other hand,parents of children with autism get more support from informal social support than formal social support.(2)The social support of parents of children with autism show significant differences on variables such as: gender of parents,types of occupation and degree of education of parents,family location,family type and annual household income.(3)The total score of posttraumatic growth were positively related to the total score of the types of social support and the sources of social support of parents of children with autism.The total score and its each factor of family quality of life were positively related to the total score of the types of social support,the sources of social support and its each factor of parents of children with autism.The total score and its each factor of family quality of life were positively related to posttraumatic growth and its each factor of parents of children with autism.(4)The social support and posttraumatic growth of parents of children with autism significant influenced their family quality of life,and the social support of parents of children with autism significant influenced their posttraumatic growth.(5)Social support partially mediated the relationship between posttraumatic growth and family quality of life of parents of children with autism.In summary,this study provides a useful guide for the theoretical research and practical exploration of the social support of parents of children with autism in China,and provides practical guidance about improving posttraumatic growth and family life quality of parents of children with autism,and provides reference for the formulation of relevant policies.