Relationship between optimism, resilience and learned helplessness in parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Abstract

In recent times there has been an increase in the number of Child Development Centres and aid for children who have Neurodevelopmental Disorders. There is now more awareness about Learning Disabilities, Intellectual Disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention- Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Parents of children who have Neurodevelopmental Disorders reach out to various Child Development Centres (government institutions or private centres) to help their children in whatever way they can. Even though Child Development Centres provide a ray of hope to these parents, raising a child with special needs can be very financially and more importantly emotionally straining. There have been studies that indicate that parents of children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders are prone to have parental stress, anxiety and even depression. The present study aims at determining the relationship between Learned Helplessness, Optimism and Resilience (Parental Resilience) among parents of children having Neurodevelopmental Disorders. The data collection for this study was conducted through a non-probability purposive sampling technique to select 157 parents of children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders from several Child Development Centres in Hyderabad. The children were aged between 3 to 14 years. The following questionnaires were employed to collect the data: Learned Helplessness Questionnaire (Quinless & McDermott-Nelson, 1988), Life Orientation Test-Revised (Carver, C. S., (2013) and the Family Resilience Scale (revised) (Kaner & Bayrakli 2010). The results of the study revealed that parents who have children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders do experience higher levels Learned Helplessness and comparatively lower levels of Parental Resilience and Optimism.