Perceived Life-stress and Coping: A Comparative Study between Parents with Intellectually Disabled Children and Control

Pages: 286-291
Anindita Majumdar and Aparajita Chakraborty (Amity Institute of Psychology & Allied Sciences, Amity University Kolkata, West Bengal)

Parenting is the most difficult and responsible task. As parent, meeting child’s developmental needs are quite complex and stressful. This task becomes even more stressful when taking care of an intellectually disabled (ID) child. The complex nature of parenting can make the parents perceive their life as stressful and tedious. In order to ease the stress, generated from robust task of parenting and caregiving, people often adapt to various copings skills. The objectives of the present study, therefore, are to examine the difference in perceived life-stress and coping pattern between parents having a single child (with ID), having two children (one with ID & one without any disability) and a control group (with one or two children without any disability). Sample of 100 parents (50 for ID category & 50 for without disability) were recruited through Purposive technique. Data was collected from both male and female parents, after obtaining informed consent, for each category by administering quantitative measures. Data, thus, collected were analyzed following appropriate statistical methods (Descriptive & Inferential). The observations revealed existence of difference in perceived life-stress and coping skills between the parent groups. Gender was indicated as a significant factor.