关键词: 孤独症, 心理防御机制, 照顾者技能培训

Abstract: Objective To explore the effectiveness of caregiver skill training in improving the symptoms of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and parental psychological defense mechanism, so as to provide evidence for clinical intervention of autistic children. Methods A total of 120 ASD children and their parents who have seen a doctor in a tertiary care children′s hospital in Chongqing from May to November 2021 were selected as the study subjects and were divided into the control group and the intervention group according to the voluntary principle. The control group received conventional intervention, while children and parents in the intervention group received caregiver skills training for 6 weeks, of which online theoretical training lasted for 4 weeks with a frequency of 5 times/week, and offline practical skills training lasted for 2 week with a frequency of 1.5 hours/time, 5 times/week. Before the intervention, at the end of the intervention, and one month after the end of the intervention, the defense ability of parents in the two groups was assessed using the Defense Mechanism Questionnaire (DSQ), the intervention effect of the children in the two groups was evaluated using the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) and the infant-junior middle school social adaptive capacity scale(SM). Results At the end of the intervention, the score of immature defense mechanism of parents in the intervention group was 3.79 ± 1.29, which was significantly lower than that in the control group (4.28 ± 1.14) (t＝-2.281, P <0.05). One month after the end of the intervention, the scores of immature defense mechanism and intermediate defense mechanism of parents in the intervention group were significantly lower than those in the control group (t=-2.490, -2.196, P <0.05). The score of autism behavior checklist in the intervention group was 55.25±8.89, significantly lower than that in the control group (60.32±9.61) (t =-2.997, P<0.05), and the time effect was significant (F=73.54, P <0.05).At the end of the intervention and one month after the end of the intervention, compared with the control group, the number of children with moderate and severe abnormalities in social life ability in the intervention group was significantly reduced (Z＝-2.119,-3.164, P<0.05). Conclusion Caregiver skill training can effectively improve the immature defense mechanism of parents and reduce the symptoms of ASD children.

Key words: autism, psychological defense mechanisms, caregiver skills training