Relation between Quality of Image of God with Hostility and Interpersonal Sensitivity in Parents of Exceptional Children

Abstract

Since parents of exceptional children are exposed to the variety of child raising stressors that impact their psychological functioning, determining factors associated with psychological health of these individuals is an important research endeavour. The aim of the current research was to investigate the relationship between image of God with hostility and interpersonal sensitivity in parents of exceptional children. To accomplish the stated goal 168 parents of exceptional children were selected by means of proportional sampling procedure. The Image of God Inventory (IOG, Lawrence, 1997) and Scales of Hostility and Interpersonal Sensitivity in Symptom Checklist90-R (SCL-90R, Deragotis et al., 1973) were administered on them. Analysis of data revealed that the magnitude of hostility and interpersonal sensitivity can be predicted from the quality of images of God in parents of exceptional children. Moreover, data revealed that parents of exceptional children who had positive image of God were lower in hostility and interpersonal sensitivity than parents of exceptional children who had a negative image of God. Authors concluded that positive image of God were associated with lower hostility and interpersonal sensitivity in parents of exceptional children. Theoretical implication and practical application of the finding are discussed in the original paper.