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A study to investigate the relationship between parental stress, social support and level of child difficulty in parents of children attending an assessment unit

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AdamsD_2005redux.pdf (16.51Mb)
Date
2006
Author
Adams, Dawn
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Abstract
 
 
Parental stress includes "subjective experiences of distress as emotional pain and anxiety" (Deater-Deckard, 2004). High levels of parental stress can have a cumulative effect over time and have a negative impact on family relationships (Quittner, Glueckay and Jackson, 1990).
 
Parents of children with intellectual disabilities report relatively high levels of distress, with a wide range of child, parent, family and service support factors implicated in parental distress (Hatton and Emerson, 2003). Severity of a child's difficulty is often linked with the level of parental stress (Keller and Honig, 2004).
 
The role of social support variables in protecting and maintaining physical and psychological health has been well established across a variety of studies (e.g. Koeske and Loeske, 1990). Generally it can be suggested that a lack of positive social relationships can lead to negative psychological states such as anxiety or depression.
 
It was the aim of this study to investigate any association between levels of parental stress, social support and levels of child difficulty in a group of parents whose children had previously undergone a multi-professional assessment of their difficulties. A further aim was to investigate whether level of reported depressive symptomology related to the level of parental stress
 
Participants included forty-four parents whose children had been assessed six to twelve months previously. Parents completed questionnaires measuring parental stress, social support, level of child difficulty and a screening measure of depressive symptomology.
 
The results of this study indicate that there was evidence of associations between level of parental stress, reported social support and perceived level of child difficulty. The results also suggest that there was evidence of an association between parental stress and level of reported depressive symptomology.
 
The results of this study support the hypothesis that both social support and level of child difficulty are predicative of level of parental stress.
 
The limitations of this study and implications for future research are discussed.
 
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/27788
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