Management of stress and depression in the parents of mentally challenged through positive therapy

Pages: 1088-1094
Sushmitha Amin and S. Gayatri Devi (Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu)

Parenting can be a pleasurable experience despite its inherent anxieties, worries, frustrations and physical stress. Raising a child who is mentally challenged requires emotional strength and flexibility. The child has special needs in addition to the regular needs of all children and parents can find themselves overwhelmed by various medical, care-giving and educational responsibilities. Whether the special needs of the child are minimal or complex, the parents are inevitably affected. The mentally challenged show behavioural problems and deficits in their adaptive behaviour in various areas, such as communication skills, self-help skills, socialization, application of basic academic skills to daily life activities, social skills, vocational and social performance and responsibilities, which lead to lot of stress and depression in their parents. The sample comprised of Parents of Mentally Challenged (N=100). The tools used were Stress Inventory (SI) and Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI). Means, Standard Deviations and ANOVA, Post hoc analysis were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that the level of stress and depression reduced drastically after Positive Therapy and during follow-up phase among the Parents of Mentally Challenged.