Religious Coping: Is It Effective to Reduce Parent's Stress During the Parenting of Special Needs Children?

Abstract

The study aims at determining the impact of religious coping on the stress endured by parents of children with special needs. It was conducted using a quantitative approach. The subjects of the study were 122 parents of special needs children, selected using accidental sampling technique. For this study, the Indonesian rendition of Amer et. al's BARCS was used as an instrument to measure the religious coping, while Berry & Jones' Parental Stress Scale was adapted to determine the stress level during the parenting of the children. The data were processed using Variance Analysis and Pearson Correlation statistical technique. The result shows that: 1) the use of religious coping in parenting the children with special needs is on a moderate level, 2) the highest level of stress was noticed on parents of children with a learning disability, in comparison with other disabilities or special needs, 3) the religious coping affected contrastingly on the parents' stress; the higher the use of the coping, the lower the stress level endured by the parents while handling their special needs children, and vice versa.