Coping mechanisms of family members with autistic children

Abstract

This study aims to uncover the coping mechanisms of family members with autistic children. All five families are from Iloilo City. The study also sought to find out if and how the autistic child affects family cohesiveness.

Ways of Coping Scale adopted from Folkman and Lazarus was utilized to determine the specific coping mechanism each family member is using. In-depth interview with the respondents was also conducted to come-up with a more detailed description of coping mechanism.

The findings of the study show that the most mothers, sisters and the father predominantly use seeking meaning, an emotion-focused coping which is an attempt to discover new faith or what is important in life. On the other hand each brother uses different coping mechanisms in dealing with having an autistic member in the family. Results also show that having an autistic child makes the family more cohesive.