Maternal attitudes and home-based interventions for enhancing social, attention, and language skills in children with autism in Diwaniyah, Iraq

Sep 28, 2026

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Maternal attitudes and engagement in home-based interventions are assessed for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Diwaniyah, Iraq, within a low-resource context. A descriptive cross-sectional census study surveyed 205 mothers from three autism centers via validated face-to-face interviews, analyzing associations with structured domains of social, attention, and language skills using SPSS and chi-square tests. Most mothers showed positive attitudes, which related significantly to social skills intervention use, while implementation varied across domains; caregiver training and psychosocial support are emphasized.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background on ASD and developmental impacts

Maternal roles and attitudes in caregiving

Factors shaping maternal attitudes in LMIC settings

Home-based intervention context

TYPE Original Research PUBLISHED 17 December 2025 DOI 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1700859 OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY Isabella Mutschler Collins, University Psychiatric Clinic Basel, Switzerland REVIEWED BY Denise Berte, Peaceful Families Project, United States Minkyung Suh, Baekseok University, Republic of Korea *CORRESPONDENCE Aqeel Abd Al-Hamza Marhoon [aqeel.abd@qu.edu.iq](aqeel.abd@qu.edu.iq) RECEIVED 07 September 2025 REVISED 24 November 2025 ACCEPTED 02 December 2025 PUBLISHED 17 December 2025 CITATION Al-Hamza Marhoon AA and Obaid KB (2025) Maternal attitudes and home-based interventions for enhancing social, attention, and language skills in children with autism in Diwaniyah, Iraq. Front. Psychiatry 16:1700859 . doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1700859 COPYRIGHT © 2025 Al-Hamza Marhoon and Obaid. This isan open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Maternal attitudes and home-based interventions for enhancing social, attention, and language skills in children with autism in Diwaniyah, Iraq Aqeel Abd Al-Hamza Marhoon* and Khamees Bandar Obaid Department of Pediatric Nursing, College of Nursing, University of Babylon, Babylon, Iraq Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) presents signiﬁcant developmental challenges, particularly in low-resource settings. Maternal attitudes and engagement in home-based interventions are critical for supporting children’s social, attention, and language development. Aims: To assess maternal attitudes toward children with ASD and evaluate the implementation of home-based interventions targeting social, attention, and language skills in Diwaniyah, Iraq. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted between April and August 2025, involving a census sample of 205 mothers of children with ASD from three autism centers in Diwaniyah. Data were collected through structured face-to-face interviews using a validated questionnaire. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 25, with descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests applied to examine the data. Results: The majority of mothers (79 . 0%) exhibited positive attitudes toward their children with ASD. Positive maternal attitudes were signiﬁcantly associated with higher education, urban residence, sufﬁcient income, attendance at educational sessions, and absence of family mental illness (p < 0 . 05) . Home-based intervention implementation was high in most domains: 67.3% for social skills, 88. 8% for attention, and 67 . 8% for language. A statistically signiﬁcant association was found between positive maternal attitudes and the use of home-based interventions targeting social skills (P value = 0.001), but not for attention or language interventions (P values > 0 . 05) . After adjusting for potential confounders, the results show that maternal attitudes were signiﬁcantly associated only with the likelihood of using home-based interventions within the social domain (adjusted odds ratio = 1 . 021; 95% CI: 0 .208-5. 010; p = 0 . 001) . Conclusion: Maternal attitudes signiﬁcantly inﬂuence the implementation of home-based social skill interventions in children with ASD. Strengthening caregiver training and psychosocial support, particularly in underserved areas, is essential to enhance home-based developmental outcomes in low-resource contexts like Diwaniyah. KEYWORDS autism spectrum disorder, home-based interventions, Iraq, maternal attitudes, social skills development Frontiers in Psychiatry 01 [frontiersin.org](frontiersin.org) Introduction Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD) is a complex neurodev

FAQs

What was the study aim regarding maternal attitudes?

The study aimed to assess maternal attitudes toward children with ASD and evaluate home-based intervention implementation targeting social, attention, and language skills in Diwaniyah, Iraq.

How was the study conducted and who were the participants?

A descriptive cross-sectional census study was conducted between April and August 2025, involving 205 mothers of children with ASD from three autism centers in Diwaniyah.

Which interventions were associated with positive maternal attitudes?

Positive maternal attitudes were significantly associated with the use of home-based interventions targeting social skills, but not for attention or language interventions.

Sep 28, 2026

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