• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.54-67
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• 1993

This study is to investigate the stress and stress degree in mothers of autistic children. In order to obtain data for planning nursing strategies for mothers of autistic children The assessment tool for the stress was constructed through reviewing literatures on the stress and gathering the stress items by nonstructed face to face interviewing 14 mothers of autistic children The stress tool consists of 74 items each with five point rating scale A data collection was made front 160 mothers of autistic children from 11 institutions for autistic children in Seoul and Kyung-Ki province. The reliability coefficients by Cronbach's a test was 0.94 for the stress scale. The results are as follows : 1) The mean of stress is 3.19, in the area of the etiology, prognosis and the treatment-education, with cause of the treatment the edeucatlon and the prognosis of child's handicap. The mean of stress is 2.85 In the area of the negative of mother's self image, 2.45 in the area of the mother's ordinary life. The mean of stress was 2.05, lowest in the family and social relationship 2) The mean score for the total was 2.62 points. The items with highest stress score were 'All autistic child has not been understood by the society', 'If we die, 1'm afraid that this child will not be cared by someone', 'There is no institution that the child get the schoolibg', etc The stress item with the lowest mean score were 'Keep away the child from husband', 'Being divorced by husband', etc. 3) An analysis of relationship of stress degree to general characteristic shows a statisically significants difference in the number of children in the family and the cognition of the seventy of the child problem

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.23 no.5 s.77
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• pp.39-51
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• 2005

This study aims at investigating the adaptation process of the mothers of autistic children. A qualitative research method was adopted for this study: in-depth interviews were conducted using semi-structured questionnaires, then the transcribed interviews were analyzed to sort out patterns of adaptation and social support. Major results of the study are as follows: First the interviewees had common processes and patterns in their experiences and went through similar emotional and psychological processes. More specifically, most of the interviewees went through the stages of denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, the interviewees did not experience the stages in the exact sequence, as the stages sometimes would repeat, or would overlap one with another, Second, the data showed that many of the mothers of autistic children could not obtain the social support that they acutely needed Also, it was found that when adequate social support was provided, it relieved the stress of the interviewees, improved their adaptation, reduced the negative effects of crises or changes in the family, and further strengthened the solidarity of the family.