Parent Support Group (PSG) Approach for Parents of Children with
Autism
Diajeng Tyas Pinru Phytanza, Sri Rizqi Widasari, Sukinah Sukinah, Rohmah Ageng Mursita, Rikrik
Triwiaty and Edi Purwanta
Program Studi Pendidikan Khusus, Sekolah Pascasarjana, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi no. 229
Bandung, Jawa Barat, Indonesia
Keywords: Autism, Parents, Parents Support Group (PSG).
Abstract: This study aimed to obtain the picture of implementation process of Parent Support Group (PSG) program for
parents of children with autism. This study used qualitative research by taking a sample of three informants.
Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation related to the implementation of
Parent Support Group (PSG) program for parents of children with autism. The results of the study found that
the program was implemented through several stages involving an initial identification, determination of
topics, setting schedules, program implementation, and evaluation. Qualitative data analysis was carried out
by means of data reduction, data display and draw conclusions. The implementation of the program is carried
out for 2 days by inviting parents, the school and a resource person as a facilitator. As a test of implementation
carried out interviews to parents and showed that the implementation is done in accordance with the plans
that have been prepared. In addition, parents feel parent support group program is very useful because parents
become more understanding about children with special needs and how to apply the appropriate parenting for
them. So that this program is recommended by some other things in particular schools.
1 INTRODUCTION
Parents Support Group (PSG) program for parents of
children with autism has become a very necessary
program developed at each school to minimize the
level of parenting stress on parents. Nowak et al.
(2013) reveals that many parents of autistic children
feel the need to defend the rights of their children, and
this can be a major source of stress in parenting.
Parenting stress involves a series of ways to
overcome behavioral and communication with
children (socialization, teaching) or nursing care
(nurturing, protecting), searching for a cure for
children (Dabrowska and Pisula, 2010). Some
interventions can be done to improve the
understanding of parents on parenting, one of which
is triple-P (Positive Parenting Program). Triple P is a
program that aims to improve the knowledge, skills
and confidence of parents, lowering the destructive
behavior of children (Sanders, 2003; Dean, Myors
and Evans, 2003; Matsumoto, Sofronoff, and
Sanders, 2007). Plimley, Bowen, and Morgan (2007)
proved that treatment with triple P education provides
an effective means of communication that increases
parent-child interaction, enhances self-esteem and
reduce stress parents' parents. (Smallegange,
Hermanns and Oort, 2016; Mitchell et al., 2007)
showed in his study that the provision of triple-P
understanding through the Parent Support Group lead
to positive results, namely the welfare of parents,
changes in parental behavior and the child's behavior.
Parents who have children with autism disorders
have many different characteristics. There are some
parents who already have a good level of acceptance
of the conditions experienced by their children so
they have a desire to learn and understand about the
needs of children including one of them is the
application of parenting patterns in accordance with
the development of their children .. But there are still
many parents who have not understood about the
Children with Special Needs and the service needs
that should be given the pattern of care so that they
tend to provide an authoritarian parenting and tend to
be over protective of children. It may be that the
1006
Phytanza, D., Widasari, S., Sukinah, S., Mursita, R., Triwiaty, R. and Purwanta, E.
Parent Support Group (PSG) Approach for Parents of Children with Autism.
In 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017), pages 1006-1010
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2017 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

purpose of over protective parenting is because
parents have an exaggerated fear if the obstacles they
experience, their child will get a bad treatment from
the environment. However, bad parenting patterns
will actually potentially increase the barriers they
experience. This is because in Children with Special
Needs requires modification of behavior and
treatment that frees them to expression.
In order to provide understanding of parents about
the pattern of care that should be applied to children
who have autism disorders of course parents need a
facilitator. There are a variety of facilitators who can
help parents one of them is a parent sharing group that
has children with autism disorders. With this sharing
group or discussion parents will tend to feel the same
friends so that anything experienced can be
communicated together and can reduce the level of
stress or incomprehension in parents who have
Children with Special Needs.
Research conducted by Pouretemad et al. (2009)
indicate that the Positive Parenting Program is
effective in reducing stress levels in parents. But these
studies have constraints that limited exploration of the
problem caused by too many samples used. In
addition, the lack of access within the validity of the
instrument also become limitations to this study.
Based on the results of the study, researchers are
interested to developing a similar program using a
limited sample so that researchers can explore more
about the problems faced. Besides researchers
validity of the instrument to the expert so hopefully
this research can illustrate better results from previous
studies.
School has been conducting Parent Support
Group (PSG) program at the end of each semester
intentionally to evaluate the learning programs and
the ability of the child within a semester. Parent
Support Group activities are carried out at the end of
each lesson in the school involving parents who have
children with the same obstacles, such as fellow
parents of children with mental barriers (Mueller,
Milian and Lopez, 2009). With the existence of
Parent Support Group, parents have chances to meet
other families with similar needs so that it can serve
each other, share information and provide mutual
support (Hallahan, Kauffman and Pullen, 2011).
Parent Support Group activities in schools did not
accommodate the needs of parents to serve each other
since it was only done in one-way communication
which was from the school to parents. One factor
which failed the goal of Parent Support Group was
due to the lack of systematically steps in the Parent
Support Group program’s implementation.
Based on these problems, the researchers
developed a Parents Support Group (PSG) program
which is expressed by Debonis (2005) on steps to
implement Parents Support Group that can provide a
positive outcome for changes in parental caring
behavior. Here is Figure 1, which describes the
implementation steps of Parents Support Group
program.
Figure 1: Implementation measures of Parents Support
Group (PSG).
Parents Support Group (PSG) Program will be
able to deliver positive results, if done with the proper
stages.
 Early Identification
In this phase researchers conducted
observations of the problemsthat occured in the
field and analyzed its needs.
 Determining the Training Topic or Discussion
Based on the findings of problems in the field,
researchers with schools and parents discussed
topics that would be delivered.
 Plan a Schedule
Topic discussion events continued with
planning discussion of implementing the
schedule of Parents Support Group.
 Implementation of the Program
Implementation of the program was done
according to the plan.
 Evaluation
The evaluation activity included an evaluation
during the implementation process and
compilation of mailing list to find out reciprocal
or benefits of Parents Support Group (PSG).
Parent Support Group (PSG) Approach for Parents of Children with Autism
1007

2 METHOD
2.1 Research Aim
This study aimed to describe the implementation
process of Parents Support Group (PSG) program in
the field naturally without any manipulation of data.
2.2 Design
The method used in this study was a qualitative
method also called investigative approach because
researchers usually collect data by meeting face to
face and interact with the people in the study area in
order to obtain the in-depth data (Walker, 2006).
2.3 Data Collecting
Data were collected through observation, interviews,
and documentation then analyzed qualitatively.
Audio-recorded semi-structured interviews and
observation, conducted within the parents’ home or at
an agreed setting. Interviews were conducted in two
schemes. The first scheme was undertaken at the
beginning of the study aimed at identifying problems
and needs in the field. While the second scheme is
done at the end of the study with the aim to know the
success of the parent support group program in
changing the views and behavior of parents to
children with special needs.
Table 1: Questions about the objective conditions of
parental care quality.
Key interview
questions
Questions
Before
implementation
program
 How does the parent
understand the child’s
obstacles?
 How do parents react when
knowing the child is
experiencing developmental
obstacles?
 How do parents design or
provide children’s education
services?
 What form of parental
support in every child’s
behavior?
 How are the rules applied to
children?
 What are the consequences
for the breach of agreed
rules?
 How do parents express their
emotions to children both
verbally and nonverbally?
 How do parents provide
protection to children?
 How often do parents give
physical punishment to
children?
After
implementation
program
 Is the program plan made
readable and understood by
the school?
 Are programs tailored to the
needs on the ground?
 Is the implementation of the
field in accordance with the
proposed program plan?
 Are programs designed to
improve parental
understanding of quality care
for children with autism
disorders?
 What is the impact of
program implementation on
behavior change on parent to
children with special needs?
2.4 Sampling and Recruitment
This study was carried out for 2 months investigating
three parents of children with autism at Rumah Autis
Bandung, Indonesia. The selection of the subjects was
done by purposive sampling as it was based on
several considerations. Parents were typically giving
frequent helps in their children’s activities, spoiling
them when they were crying as well as the lack of
mutual participation among parents with similar
children’s problem that led the lack of understanding
of parents of children with autism. In addition, one
out of the three parents was a single parent. It was
somehow different compared to two other parental
caring as well as the lack of acceptance support from
full-member family, which affected her personal
relationship as she was not close to others and was
experiencing stress in parenting process. In order to
obtain the data regarding factors associated with
socio-economic background of the subject,
researchers initially asked the school related to the
condition of parents and possible willingness of
parents to be the subject of research. Furthermore,
based on the recommendation of the school, the
researchers asked for permission directly to the
parents concerned and in order to maintain the
privacy of the subject, the subject names were
confidentially abbreviated.
2.5 Data Analysis
Whiteley and Whiteley (2006) explain that the
qualitative data analysis of the observations and
interviews are a must in qualitative research to adapt
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
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to the situation on the ground which is unique for each
study. Qualitative data analysis in this research was
done by collecting data, data reduction, data display
and then draws conclusions.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In the early identification phase, researchers
conducted observations of the child-care condition
performed by parents of children with autism. Child-
care conditions observed, among others drawn from
the theory of Baumrind (1991) covering the aspects
of warmth, positive control, positive affect,
protection, and punishment against children. Based
on observations conducted, researchers found out that
parents did not understand the quality of child care
that should be applied to children which impact on the
less optimum development of the child's ability.
Results confirmed through interviews with the school
and their parents, researchers concluded some
problems faced by parents among other, parents do
not understand the essence of children with autism
and parents’ lack of understanding of the quality care
application for children who have yet to fully impact
the development owned by the child.
Limited trial held on 14-15 June 2016 at the
school. Implementation carried out by inviting
parents, the school and resource experts as facilitators
for the participants to have a high level of confidence.
Farell and Weaver (2000), revealed that the
facilitators are individuals who helped to launch the
process of the communication group of people so that
they can understand or solve problems together.
Trials conducted for 3 x 60 minutes to 13 autism
parents were carried out in a joint meeting but
researches used 3 subjects for. Implementation of the
program led by the principal and featured Dr. Hj.
Rahayu Ginintasasi, S.Psi., M.Psi., as an expert in the
field of parenting a child with autism. The event
began with an introduction, then the experts
explained about the materials to be delivered. Further
activities were conducted with the provision of
material about the nature of children with autism as
well as the material regarding the caring quality and
attention of participants.
Based on observations the development of Parent
Support Group (PSG) program were in accordance
with the needs on the field, the speakers deliver
material in accordance with program implementation
plans that have been validated, parents were
enthusiastic to pay attention to the material presented
and to ask some questions to the informant related to
their desire to improve the quality of care for their
children who have autism. The result of this study
proves the Hallahan, Kauffman and Pullen (2011)
that the presence of parents support group so parents
can share their experiences and knowledge so as to
provide emotional support. Boonsuchat (2015) and
Abenavoli, Greenberg, T., and Bierman (2015)
revealed that through the Parent Support Group
program can reduce the level of anxiety of parents
that will greatly help improve the child's ability in
academic and non-academic.
Evaluation can be defined as a systematic way of
valuation which ultimately provides the necessary
information for continuous improvement (Borate,
Prasad, and Borate, 2014), the evaluation was done
with the instruments of observation and interviews
related to the planned implementation of the program.
Based on observations conducted by researchers
during the implementation of the program, the Parent
Support Group (PSG) program development was
based on the results of preliminary studies that were
in accordance with the needs in the field, the
implementation process were conducted in
accordance with the stages in validation. During the
implementation, the parents enthusiastically paid
attention to the material presented and had chances to
ask some questions to the experts related to their
eagerness to improve the quality of care for their
children who in needs.
Some of the challenges expressed by Oloffson,
Skoog, and Tillfor (2016) related to the
implementation of the Parent Support Group
program, where each parent has different activities so
it’s difficult in scheduling, a facilitator greatly
influences the success of the program so that schools
should be very careful in determining issues that will
be presented as well as selecting the right facilitator.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The stages of PSG program implementation process
began with early identification to problems and needs
in the school, then the identification results were
taken into consideration to determine the topic of the
meeting soon after the implementation schedule was
agreed upon investigator with the joint school,
parents and facilitators. The PSG program
implementation process indicated an active exchange
of information between the school, parents and
facilitators so that this stage was highly recommended
to be implemented in other schools with adjustment
needs in particular schools.
Parent Support Group (PSG) Approach for Parents of Children with Autism
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