ACP2023 Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations

68546 | Military Life Challenges Among Military Spouses: Implications for Future Interventions

Bianca Comicho, Ateneo de Davao University, Philippines

While there is a vast amount of research about the military in the Western setting, in the Philippines, there is an undeniable scarcity in research involving the military, its members and their families. As the “overlooked casualities of war”, the researcher believes that military family members are equally impacted by the military lifestyle thus they also deserve equal research attention- especially the spouses who manage a handful of responsibilities in the family while the military member is away. This study aimed to arrive on certain research implications regarding the challenges faced by military spouses that will help design future interventions specific for military spouses in the Philippines. Using a mixed-method research design, the researcher investigated 4 major areas: stressors, coping resources, coping strategies, and perceptions of the spouses. The first phase of data gathering (survey) identified the top 5 responses in these 4 areas. While the second phase of data gathering aimed to elaborate the data. Data anaysis revealed that anxiety was a major stressor. Other top stressors were media or media reporting, deployment and suspicion of infidelity. The spouses’ coping resources were classified into 2: social and personal coping resources. Coping strategies were categorized into 3: emotionfocused, problem-focused, and avoidance coping strategy. Lastly, perception about being a military spouse revealed 3 themes: resilience, sense of pride, and sense of security. These findings implied the need to design interventions specific for military spouses that will target stress reduction, enhancing coping resources and strategies and maintaining healthy perceptions of the spouses.

68164 | Examining the Exercise-Executive Functions Relation in Children With Autism

Choi Yeung Andy Tse, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Physical exercise is widely reported to be beneficial to executive functions (EFs) in children with autism. However, the impact of physical exercise on self regulation (SR) remains unknown. Moreover, very few studies have been done to examine the mechanism that underlies the exercise-EF and exercise -SR relations. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the two types of physical exercise (cognitively engaging vs non-cognitively engaging) benefit EFs through SR in children with autism. Sixty-four children diagnosed with ASD (52 males and 12 females, Mage = 10.00±1.40 yr, Mheight = 1.39 ± 0.11 m, and Mweight = 39.65 ± 8.86kg) were randomly assigned into one of three groups: learning to ride a bicycle (n = 23), stationary cycling (n = 19) or an active control with walking (n = 22). Two executive functions (EFs) -flexibility and inhibition and the mediating role of self-regulation (SR) were assessed. Participants in the learning to ride a bicycle group significantly improved their EFs (ps <.01). Mediation analyses showed that SR partially mediated the exercise-EF relationship (p <.05). Cognitively engaging exercise may positively influence EFs in children with ASD in part through improving their self-regulation agen.iafor.org/agen2023-virtual-presentations