Background & objective: Autism Spectrum disorder is one of the most commonly occurring abnormalities in children with a variety of conditions that challenge the individual’s social skills, verbal and written communication, and repetitive behaviors. ASD commonly co-occurs with other developmental, psychiatric, neurologic, chromosomal, and genetic diagnoses. Children with autism spectrum disorder may display a series of externalizing problem behavior including aggression, non-compliance, and defiance. Such problem behaviors are associated with increased stress and depression in parents. Mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are confronted with ongoing challenges that can influence various aspects of family life. Studies have shown that parents of children with ASD had more parenting stress than parents of those with down syndrome, cerebral palsy or specific learning disorders. Mindful parenting is defined as having a non-judgmental moment-to-moment awareness of the parent-child interactions and relationships and paying attention to your child. Self-compassion involves being touched by, and open to one’s own suffering, desiring to alleviate one’s own suffering, and healing oneself with kindness. It also involves accepting and understanding non-judgmentally one’s pain, inadequacies, and failures. Self-compassion may be a resource for resiliency and a protective shield against both internal and external criticism to have children with autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of this research was to determine the mediating role of self-compassion in the relationship between mindful parenting and child's behavior problems and parental stress among mothers of children with autism in Isfahan. Method: Method of this research is correlation and causal type. The study population consisted of all mothers with autistic child referring to autistic private and public centers in summer of 2016. For this study, 120 mothers were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria by available sampling and completed questionnaires. The research instrument was mindful parenting (Duncan et al 2009), self-compassion (Raes et al, 2011) and parental stress (Friedrich et al, 1995). These measure are reliable and their validity is approved. For structural equation modeling, Amos 23 was used. Results: Mindful parenting and self-compassion were predicted 26 percent of the variance of parental stress, which is estimated in terms of the volume of the effect of the indicator of the coefficient of determination of this amount in the average. Also, the direct effect of both mindful parenting and self-esteem variables on stress parenting is statistically significant (p=0.048). And the indirect effect of both mindful parenting on stress parenting is significant (p=0.044). Results showed that self-compassion has a partial mediating role in the relationship between mindful parenting and parental stress. Conclusions: According to the results, self-compassion mediates the relationship between mindful parenting and parental stress among mothers of children with autism spectrum disorders. Mindful parenting consciously helps parents to be flexible in their life and to respond with their children in a proper way, and their goals and behaviors are in accordance with their values. Mindful parenting in parents with a child with autism disorder can help to understand it in a rational manner by increasing self-esteem when confronted with parental stress, and by providing solutions based on experience and thinking, it to manage.

Keywords: Parental Stress, Mindful Parenting, Self-Compassion, Autism Spectrum Disorder.

     

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