Socio – Demographic Correlates and Psychological Factors Associated with Mothers of Mentally Handicapped Children

Abstract

The response of society to its individuals with disability, especially those with mentally handicapped has varied a great deal over the human history. The mother plays a major role in the family especially as the caretaker of the mentally retarded child. It is important for the service provider to know what are the psychological problem are pose by parents and their children for whom they seek professional help and guidance . However, the present problem for investigation which intends to study the socio – demographic correlates and psychological factors associated with mothers of mentally handicapped children of mentally handicapped children. The study was carried out on 100 subject’s selected using purposive sampling. The subject consisted of mentally handicapped children and their biological mother was coming to OPD of Composite Regional Rehabilitation Centre for Persons with disabilities, Sundernagar, Mandi. Himachal Pradesh. Tools used in the study were (a) Socio-demographic Data sheet (b) Family Interview Schedule for Stress and Coping in Mental Retardation (c) Behavior Assessment Scale for Indian Children with Mental Retardation. The overall analysis of the results revealed that degree of mentally handicapped with or without behavior problem did not influence mothers stress and depression. Besides this, it was found that level of mentally handicapped alone did affect coping skill and anxiety level of mothers. It can be seen that relatively high representation of male child (60%) was brought to the centre for intervention and majority of them belong to rural areas. It was also found that only one third of the mentally handicapped children attending special schools. There was significant high number of mothers (58%) to have education level of 10th and above, majority of them were house wife and fell under the category of lower middle class income group. Moreover rehabilitation related professional would be needed to hike their professional standard of services dealing with the families of the mentally handicapped children. The services offered by governments as well as NGOs have great impact on community and society.