Studying the correlation between the personality traits of parents having autistic children and the severity of autism in their children

Abstract

The current research aims to determine the correlation between the personal traits of parents having autistic children and the severity of autism in their children. The research design is correlative and the population includes all of the parents having autistic children in age range of 4-11 who visit the Zehne Ziba clinic or Tehran Autism Society, school for exceptional children in Babol, and Treatment and Rehabilitation Center of Khorshid Amol in 2013. Among these parents 40 individuals were chosen as the sample by the use of available sampling. Tools used in this research are two questionnaires of NEO personality inventory (FFI) and Autism spectrum Quotient. The Pearson correlation statistical method and multivariate regression analysis were used for data analysis. Results showed that personality traits of mother and father significantly affect the changes in the severity of autism, in other words the variables of personality traits of mother and father have the power for predicting the severity of autism in children. Based on the stated findings we could consider these findings along with the existence of a correlation between the personality trait of parents and the autism disease, which means that the personality traits of parents affect the autistic children and the children affect the personality traits of parents as well. This effect could be through genetics, modeling, learning or the effect of these factors on the environment.