Exploring the Potential Impact of Training on Short-Term Quality of Life and Stress of Parents of Children with Autism: The Integrative Parents’ Autism Training Module

Nikoletta Mavroeidi (), Christos Sifnaios, Ariadne Ntinou, Giorgos Iatrou, Olympia Konstantakopoulou, María Merino Martínez, Martina Nucifora, Ibrahim Tanrikulu and Antonios Vadolas
Additional contact information
Nikoletta Mavroeidi: Department of Scientific Documentation and Education, Child and Adolescent Center, 12123 Peristeri, Greece
Christos Sifnaios: Department of Scientific Documentation and Education, Child and Adolescent Center, 12123 Peristeri, Greece
Ariadne Ntinou: EPIONI Greek Carers Network, 15125 Marousi, Greece
Giorgos Iatrou: Department of Scientific Documentation and Education, Child and Adolescent Center, 12123 Peristeri, Greece
Olympia Konstantakopoulou: Center for Health Services Management and Evaluation, Department of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
María Merino Martínez: Asociación Autismo Burgos, 09001 Burgos, Spain
Martina Nucifora: Controvento Onlus, 95123 Catania, Italy
Ibrahim Tanrikulu: Department of Psychological Counseling & Guidance, Faculty of Education Gaziantep University, Şehitkamil-Gaziantep 27310, Turkey
Antonios Vadolas: Department of Scientific Documentation and Education, Child and Adolescent Center, 12123 Peristeri, Greece

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 4, 1-21

Abstract: Parents of autistic children experience high levels of parental stress and low quality of life related to the demanding child caring burden they experience. Parent education and training programs are acknowledged to improve parental well-being and reduce parenting stress. In the framework of the Erasmus+ Integrative Autism Parents Training Project (IPAT), we developed the IPAT Training Module based on parents’ expressed needs, in order to improve parental quality of life (QoL) and decrease their perceived stress. Sixty-two parents from four countries participated in the IPAT Module Training activity. We used WHOQOL-BREF and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10 version) for QoL and stress, respectively, before and after training and a study-specific questionnaire to assess participants’ satisfaction. Parents’ QoL improved significantly in the environment domain and specific items, while stress levels remained unmodified. Training appeared more advantageous for parents with lower initial QoL and those whose child had been enrolled in a special education program for an extended duration. Parents were quite satisfied, in particular those with lower initial social relationships QoL. Larger studies including a control group are necessary to support preliminary evidence provided by this study, identify additional effect moderators, and disentangle the contribution of different components of the training.

Keywords: ASD; autism; parents; training; psychoeducation; stress; quality of life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/4/474/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/4/474/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:4:p:474-:d:1375088

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().