Inter-Gender and Intra-Gender Differences of Parenting Stress among Mothers of Children with Special Needs and Normal Children

Abstract

Introduction Parenting is a major form of stress, especially in children with special needs. However this stress has not been properly understood as evident from paucity of literature in this area. Objective (i) To evaluate parenting stress among parents (mother & father) of children with special needs and normal children. (ii) To compare parenting stress among mothers of special children and normal children. Method Assessment of parenting stress using Sheldon Cohen Perceived Stress Scale questionnaire on (i) Parents of 60 special (study group) and 60 normal (control group) children aged between 5 and 12 years. (ii) Mothers of children with special needs and mothers of normal children. The Questionnaire was provided to both parents, they were seated separately in order to avoid bias. Statistical analysis was done using Unpaired t-test. Results (i) The study group scored higher as compared to the control group with their means and standard deviations being (18.914+ 5.24) and (16.12+ 4.18) respectively. The statistical value of significance (p value) is 0.0019. (ii) The mothers of children with special needs scored higher than mothers of normal children with their means and standard deviations being (19.04 + 5.68) and (15.08 + 5.06) respectively, the p value is 0.014. Conclusion Present study showed that the parents of special children had significantly higher parenting stress levels as compared to the parents of normal children and mothers of special need children were more stressed than the mothers of normal children. It is important to address this stress as it could lead to impairments of overall quality of life in both parents and their child or children.