Mothers’ coping and hope in early intervention

Abstract

The goals of the study were to examine the relations between maternal coping and hope among mothers who participated in early intervention program for their infants. Earlier studies focused attention on mothers’ experiences of stress and their coping. Within the salutogenic construct, we aim at examining relations between mothers’ coping and hope while considering individual resources (sense of coherence) and family resources (family cohesion and adaptability). 111 mothers of infants with developmental delays and developmental disabilities (60 boys and 51 girls with age range from 3–24 months (M = 16.92 months, SD = 7.22)) participated in the study. The questionnaires consisted of coping, sense of coherence, FACES III and hope. In order to identify the relations between mothers’ coping strategies and hopeful thinking, a structural equation modelling using AMOS19 software (SEM) was used. The analysis of the hypothesised structural relations among variables revealed a high fit between the modified model and the empirical findings. The model demonstrated that coping mediated family adaptation, and together with personal SOC contributed to mothers’ hope. Mothers with high levels of SOC, and with high coping strategies, felt more hopeful. In addition, for mothers in families characterised by flexibility and open to changes in their family climate, their coping served as a mediator between adaptation and hope. The family cohesion was interrelated with mothers’ SOC. The theoretical significance and the early intervention implications will be discussed.