The Relationship Between Parenting Stress, Self-compassion, and Fear of Negative Evaluation With Coronavirus Anxiety in Parents of Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background and Aims The coronavirus pandemic has increased coronavirus anxiety among various people in society, especially more vulnerable people, including parents of children with autism spectrum disease (ASD). However, in the literature about ASD, there is no evidence to identify related factors of coronavirus anxiety among parents having children with ASD. So, the present study aimed to determine the relationship between parenting stress, self-compassion, and fear of negative evaluation with coronavirus anxiety in parents of students with ASD. Methods A descriptive-correlational design was used in this study. The statistical population of this study included parents of students with ASD living in Tehran City, Iran, in the academic year 2020-2021. Among them, 150 people were selected using the convenience sampling method. In this study, the corona dis-ease anxiety scale (CDAS), the parenting stress index-short form (PSQ), the self-compassion scale-short form (SCS), and the brief fear of negative evaluation scale-short form (FNES-B) were used. The data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results The findings of this study showed that self-compassion negatively (t=-2.335; Sig.=0.018) and fear of negative evaluation positively (t=2.212; Sig.=0.029) could predict coronavirus anxiety in parents of students with ASD, but parenting stress could not significantly predict coronavirus anxiety in parents of students with ASD (t=1.902; Sig.=0.061). Conclusion The results of this study showed that self-compassion and fear of negative evaluation were significantly associated with coronavirus anxiety in parents of students with ASD. Therefore, it is possible to improve the level of coronavirus anxiety among parents of students with ASD by reducing fear of negative evaluation and increasing self-compassion.