RESILIÊNCIA EM MÃES DE CRIANÇAS COM TRANSTORNO DE ESPECTRO AUTISTA E FATORES RELACIONADOS

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a behavioral syndrome that compromises motor and psychoneurological development in early childhood and characterizes difficulties in cognition, language and social interaction. The obstacles characteristic of ASD can lead to problems in family relationships, in this context the importance of the mother's resilience is highlighted in overcoming adversities arising from the care process. Resilience is considered a property of mental health, which seeks to improve human coping skills, allowing individuals to emerge transformed and strengthened from adverse events. The objective was to evaluate the resilience of mothers with children with ASD and related factors. To this end, a quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out, collecting data from mothers of children diagnosed with ASD, using the Google Forms platform. There was approval by the Ethics Committee under opinion nº 4.908.904. The inclusion criteria were: mothers, over 18 years old, who live with a child with a confirmed diagnosis of ASD up to 19 years old, living in a Brazilian municipality. Data collection was carried out using instruments that assessed sociodemographic issues, resilience, overload, expressed emotion and subjective well-being. The results demonstrated a high resilience prevalence in mothers of children with ASD. Several variables showed significant differences in the level of resilience, including sociodemographic characteristics, characteristics of the mothers' lifestyle habits, aspects related to the child with ASD and the mothers' mental health. However, the multiple analysis demonstrated that age group, region, disease, birth order of the child with ASD, education of the child with ASD and caregiver burden were considered factors associated with the “Level of Resilience”. Among mothers aged 33 to 37 and 42 years or older, from the southeast region and who had children with ASD in/with primary education, higher prevalences of “High Resilience” were observed. On the other hand, among mothers who reported some illness related to mental health, who had had their first or second child with ASD and who had moderate to intense or severe levels of caregiver burden, they had significantly lower prevalences of “High Resilience”. The magnitude of the associations observed among mothers aged 42 or over, with a child with primary education and those with severe overload is noteworthy. It was concluded that mothers predominantly showed high resilience, highlighting these women's ability to adapt and overcome challenges. The present study allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the elements that influence the resilience of mothers of children with ASD. Sources of resilience have been found to reside both in mothers themselves and in their social environments.