Iranian Journal of Rehabilitation Research in Nursing

Introduction: The birth of every child with Autism is associated with several problems for parents. Lack of emotional support and the burden of the child cause psychological problems in mothers with autistic children. Therefore, the aim of this research was to determine the effectiveness of the “kozloff parental training program" on expressed emotion and burden in mothers with autistic child.

Methods: This research was a quasi-experimental study with pre and post-tests. Thirty mothers with autistic children were assigned randomly to the control and experimental group. The experimental group was received the Kozloff parental training program in 12 sessions (90 minutes, two times per week). The research instruments were the Pai and Kapur's Family Burden Interview Schedule Scale (FBIS) and expressed emotion to child. The result of this research was analyzed by examination of covariance with the SPSS version 17 software.

Results: The results indicated that positive expressed emotion in mothers, who received the Kozloff training intervention, was increased (P < 0.001). In addition, a significant decrease was observed in the negative expressed emotion and burden in the experimental group (P < 0.001). However, these changes were not observed in the control group.

Conclusions: The Kozloff parental training was effective in increased positive expressed emotion and decrease negative emotions and objective and subjective burden in mothers with autistic children.