Relations between quality of image of God and mental health 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 and mental health 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 Symptom Checklist90-R (SCL-90R, Deragotis et al., 1973) were administered on them. Analysis of data revealed that the magnitude of mental health 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 higher in mental health than parents of exceptional children who had a negative image of God. Authors concluded that positive image of God were associated with mental health in parents of exceptional children. Theoretical implication and practical application of the finding are discussed in the original paper.