Abstract
BACKGROUND: Families who assume the limitations and negative impacts of having an autistic child as a major stressor tend to have a severe stress level, which results in maladaptive family coping and low caring behavior, so failure of autistic children occurs. This study aimed to analyze the effect of family coping models based on stress assessment to caring behavior of school-aged autistic children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Quasi-experimental research was conducted on parents of 7-12 years old autistic children in center autism Surabaya, Indonesia. A large sample was used and the rule of thumb was used in sem, 9 indicators × 12 observed variables = 108. Parents were classified into a control group of 54 people without treatment and a control group of 54 people with treatment, who were given an application of randomly determined coping model. Data were collected from May to July 2022 using a questionnaire. Two-way test of variance using Wilcoxon signed ranks was used, and the difference test between groups uses Mann-Whitney U. RESULTS: The difference test between in the controlled group shows any significant differences in family coping (z = 0.13) and ability the care for school-age autistic children (z = 0.08). The difference test between samples in the treatment group shows that there are significant differences in family coping (z = 5.04) and ability to care for school-age children autistic (z = 5.08). The difference test between the control and treatment groups shows that there are significant differences in family coping (z = 5.75) and the ability to care for school-age children autistic (z = 7.00). CONCLUSIONS: There is a significant difference on family coping and caring behavior between the control and treatment groups, which is going to be good. It was shown that creating an adaptive family coping was necessary.