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Article History

Received: 21 January 2026

Accepted: 12 June 2026

First Online: 19 June 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran (approval code: IR.SSU.REC.1403.122). All procedures involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the Declaration of Helsinki. The direct study participants were adult mothers of autistic children. Written informed consent was obtained from all participating mothers before data collection. Participants were informed about the study aims, confidentiality of data, voluntary participation, audio-recording of interviews, and their right to withdraw from the study at any time without consequences.Because the study concerned autistic children aged 4–12 years, all children referred to in the study were younger than 16 years. No child was directly interviewed or asked to participate in data collection. However, where information about the child, including confirmation of autism diagnosis from available medical records, was used for eligibility verification and contextual description, written parental consent/permission was obtained from the participating mother as the child’s parent and primary caregiver. No identifiable information about the children or mothers is reported in the manuscript. Pseudonyms or participant numbers were used to protect confidentiality.

Consent for publication: Not applicable. No identifiable individual data are reported.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.