Recursos percibidos y estado emocional en padres de hijos con discapacidad

Abstract

Disability affects significantly to the family of the person who suffers it, because the whole family has to cope and accept the situation. Nowadays the consequences of this situation on parents remain unknown, taken into account that most of the research about disability has been made with the person with disability. Aims: 1) Describe emotional status, social and personal resources and coping in parents of people with disabilities; 2) Explore the relationships between emotional status with the rest of variables assessed. Method: 21 parents of people with intellectual disabilities were assessed. This is a descriptive study. Variables: anxiety, depression, social support perception, social comparison, coping strategies and control perception. Results: Parents showed low scores in emotional status, as well as in social support perception and high scores in control perception. Parents used more frequently the contrast-ascendant type of social comparison and search of solutions as a coping strategy. Depression and anxiety showed a significant relationship with social comparison, coping styles and control perception. Conclusion: Being parents of people with disability surely produces an emotional impact, for these reasons, we should help these parents to use their personal and social resources and coping strategies in order to better adapt themselves to the new life conditions as soon as possible.