Background & Objectives: The prevalence of autism requires the parents to spend more time meeting their children's needs during their lifetime. Child cognitive impairment, behavioral problems, irritable mood, hyperactivity, stubbornness, nutritional problems, inability to care for oneself, poor adaptive function, language impairments, special learning disorders, imposing restrictions on family life, separation from friends and family, as well as the need for lifelong care, increase the anxiety of parents of autistic children. On the other hand, one of the personality traits that is closely related to life's challenges during one's life is resilience. Many researchers believe that the presence of individual differences and different personality traits distinguishes people's reactions to stressful situations. Another variable that may be associated with fathers of children with autism spectrum disorder is self–compassion. It is defined as experiencing and being affected by the suffering of others so that one can make one's problems and sufferings more bearable. Cognitive flexibility, on the other hand, is a good predictor of self–compassion in fathers. This study aims to predict resilience and self–compassion in fathers of children with autism spectrum disorder based on cognitive flexibility.
Methods: The present research was a descriptive–analytic study of correlational type. The statistical population consisted of fathers with children with autism spectrum disorder whose children were enrolled in special schools in the city of Hamadan, Iran, in the 2019–2020 academic year. Using the available sampling method, 175 fathers of these children were selected as the sample. The inclusion criteria for fathers were having a child with autism spectrum disorder and an education level of at least a high school diploma. The exclusion criterion for fathers was an unwillingness to cooperate in this research. Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (Dennis & Vander Wal, 2010), Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (Connor & Davidson, 2003), and Self–Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003) were used to collect the data. The Pearson correlation and stepwise regression were used to analyze the data using SPSS 21 software. The significance level of the tests was α=0.05.
Results: The results showed that all subscales of cognitive flexibility had direct and significant correlations with the resilience and self–compassion of fathers with children with autism (p<0.001). The subscale of the perception of different options showed the highest correlation coefficient (r=0.711, p<0.001) with resilience, and the subscale of the perception of behavior justification had the lowest correlation coefficient (r=0.652, p<0.001). The subscale of perception of controllability had the highest correlation coefficient (r=0.682, p<0.001) with compassion, and the perception of different options subscale had the lowest correlation coefficient (r=0.618, p<0.001). Also, among the subscales of cognitive flexibility, the subscale of perception of behavior justification (p<0.001, β=0.315) and perception of controllability (p=0.003, β=0.376) could directly predict self–compassion, which the subscale of perception of controllability was a more important predictor of self–compassion in these fathers than the other subscales. Also, among the subscales of cognitive flexibility, the perception of different options (p=0.002, β=0.425) and the perception of controllability (p=0.015, β=0.362) could directly predict resilience that the perception of different options. It was a more important predictor of resilience in these fathers than any other subscale.
Conclusion: Based on the findings, cognitive flexibility plays a key role in predicting the resilience and self–compassion of fathers of children with an autism spectrum disorder.