Religion and Resilience of Parents with a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorders

The resilience of parents with children with autism is a key concept in the confrontation of the autism challenges which demand parents who are mentally healthy and who will be in a position to satisfy the special needs of their autistic children, however, without sinking into loneliness and isolation which affect the less resistant families and upset their inner balance. The parents resort to various sources for the strengthening of resilience, it is the power of God both as a cause of the origin of autism and as the unique or one of the possible ways of resolving the problem. This survey investigated the views on divine will as to the origin and confrontation of autism in families of Christians and Muslims and it attempted to highlight the possible differences in the culture of these groups that are different in terms of culture and religion. The parents of 312 autistic children in Greece, all of them couples, namely 624 men and women, constituted the population sample. The quantitative survey results showed that the Greek Christians satisfy more efficiently their child’s needs, perhaps because they attribute lesser importance to the factor of the Divine compared to the parents of other religions. The weaker connection between the origin and management of the disease and the Divine will allows them to invest in scientific help for addressing a problem which in fact they perceive in more positive social terms than the Muslims do.