Stress among Parents of Children with Mental Retardation

Authors

  • Md Ziaul Islam Associate Professor and First Author, Department of Community Medicine, National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine (NIPSOM); Mohakhali, Dhaka
  • Sharmin Farjana Scientific Officer, Institute of Public Health, Mohakhali, Dhaka
  • Runa Shahnaz Medical Officer, Mohakhali, Dhaka

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v12i1.13354

Keywords:

Stress, Parents, Children, Mental Retardation

Abstract

Mental retardation is one of the most prevalent developmental disabilities of the children globally. Family is the main source of support for those disable children in any society. Parents experience enormous physical and mental stress to tackle the mentally retarded children. This present comparative cross-sectional study tried to compare difference of mental and physical stress between the parents of children with mental retardation and the parents of children with no mental retardation. It included 220 parents, 110 of whom had children with mental retardation and another 110 parents of children with no mental retardation. To assess stress, A Quick Stress Assessment Test (QSAT) (Vaz, 1995) was used, which comprised two parts: physical and mental, former with 19 items and latter with 21 items. Data were collected with a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed by using SPSS software. To check differences of stress scores and gender differences of stress,t test and ?2 tests were applied as required. The study revealed that the parents of children with mental retardation (PCMR) shared significantly greater stress score (34.27) than the parents of children with no mental retardation (PCNR) (21.66), [t(218)= 2.63, p=0.001]. Mental stress score was significantly higher among PCMR (33.57) than the PCNR (26.46) [t(218)= 3.87; p=0.002] while physical stress score was insignificantly higher among PCMR (20.43) than the PCNR (18.66). Majority of the parents with mentally retarded children (71.4% mothers and 67.5% fathers) had higher mental stress than physical stress [?2 (1)=22 43, p=0.024]. Mothers had significantly higher mental stress score than the fathers of mentally retarded children [t(109), p=0.025]. Special measures like early diagnosis, prompt treatment and counseling for mental and physical stress of the parents along with provision of need based rehabilitation services for the mentally retarded children at different levels to reduce the stress burden of their parents.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v12i1.13354

Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 12 No. 01 January13 pp.74-80

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
623
PDF
346

Downloads

Published

2013-01-17

How to Cite

Islam, M. Z., Farjana, S., & Shahnaz, R. (2013). Stress among Parents of Children with Mental Retardation. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science, 12(1), 74–80. https://doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v12i1.13354

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2013)

Section

Original Articles

License

Authors who publish in the Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science agree to the following terms that:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science the right of first publication of the work.

  2. Creative Commons Licence
    Articles in Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CC BY-4.0.This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
  3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  4. Authors are permitted to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as greater citation of published work.