Predictors of Coping in Parents of Children With an Intellectual Disability: Comparison Between Lebanese Mothers and Fathers

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2008.11.001Get rights and content

This cross-sectional study was designed to assess the predictors of coping behaviors of 147 Lebanese parents (101 mothers and 46 fathers) with a child with intellectual disability. It assessed the contribution of child's and parent's characteristics, informal social support, and stress on the coping behaviors of fathers and mothers. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that the father's education, informal social support, and stress were the best predictors of coping. The child's age, severity of illness, and parental health did not significantly contribute to predicting coping behaviors. Contrary to expectations in a Middle Eastern culture, both fathers and mothers reported similar levels of stress, perceived informal social support, and coping. Although informal social support cannot be forced on parents, health professionals can mobilize resources that are culturally sensitive, such as home visitation by nurses or support from other parents. This may especially be beneficial in developing countries with limited resources.

Section snippets

Coping

When a child experiences a disability, the role of caring takes on an entirely different meaning for the parents. One of the main challenges for parents is to effectively cope with the child's chronic condition while juggling the requirements of everyday living. The coping strategies adopted by parents are often based on the culture they live in. Culture is regarded as the shared ideals, values, rituals, norms of behavior, and beliefs of a society which are passed down from one generation to

Social Support

Social support is effective when it meets the specific needs of the individual seeking the support. Two forms of support are described in the literature: “formal” support, which is received from professionals, and “informal” support, which is received from family and friends (Patterson & McCubbin, 1983). Research on stress and coping has shown that one of the most effective means by which individuals cope with stressful events is through both kinds of support. There is substantial evidence

Stress

The fact that a child's disability poses a heavy burden on parents and results in undue stress has been well established in the literature (Bailey et al., 1992, Dodgson et al., 2000, Lloyd & Hastings, 2008, O'Brien, 2001). Parents are unexpectedly plunged into an emotional dilemma, which is further aggravated by the unpredictable nature of the problem and the inherent demands in caring for a child with a disability (Pelchat, Lefebvre, & Perreault, 2003).

Design

A cross-sectional prospective design was used in this study.

Participants

The sample consisted of 101 mothers and 46 fathers of 147 children. These parents had one child between the ages of 5 and 12 years with an intellectual disability and placed in one of 8 special education centers that cater to their needs in Beirut, Lebanon. Ninety-two percent of the children had been in the center for more than 2 years, and thus, for most parents, the diagnoses of their child's intellectual disability had occurred more

Demographic Data

As summarized in Table 1, 147 parents (101 mothers and 46 fathers) participated in the study. The fathers were slightly older, with a mean age of 47.70 years (SD = 14.33 years), compared with the mother's mean age of 39.79 years (SD = 7.39 years). The mean number of children per family was 3.72 (SD = 1.59). Almost 34.5% of both mothers and fathers had attained at least a secondary level of education, with 17.4% of the fathers and 13.8% of the mothers attaining a university degree. Most families

Discussion

The aim of this study was to identify the factors that explain coping behaviors in parents of children with intellectual disability and to compare differences in stress, social support, and coping between fathers and mothers. The sample for this study consisted of both fathers and mothers between the ages of 39.8 and 47.7 years with an intermediate to secondary education and of relatively low-income backgrounds. The average family had 3.7 children. Most parents perceived themselves in fair to

Conclusion and Implications for Practice

In summary, this study provides some evidence that Lebanese fathers and mothers experience similar levels of stress and coping when caring for a child with intellectual disability, as do the parents in Western cultures, and also share similar feelings about lack of informal social support. This was an unexpected finding given the general impression of Middle Eastern cultures that it is the mothers who are most affected by the care of the child with disability and that social support is ample.

References (90)

  • BaileyD.B.J. et al.

    Needs expressed by mothers and fathers of young children with disabilities

    American Journal on Mental Retardation

    (1992)
  • BlacherJ. et al.

    Positive impact of intellectual disability on families

    American Journal on Mental Retardation

    (2007)
  • BrightJ.A. et al.

    Dealing with chronic stress: Coping strategies, self-esteem and service use in mothers of handicapped children

    Journal of Mental Health

    (1997)
  • Brotanek, J. M., Seeley, C. E., Flores, G. (2008). The importance of cultural competency in general pediatrics. Current...
  • Canary, H. E. (2008). Creating supportive connections: A decade of research on support for families of children with...
  • CarterC. et al.

    The friendship club: An after-school program for children with Asperger syndrome

    Family and Community Health

    (2004)
  • ChangM.Y. et al.

    The perceptions of Taiwanese families who have children with learning disability

    Journal of Clinical Nursing

    (2007)
  • Chao-HsingY.

    Gender differences of parental distress in children with cancer

    Advanced Nursing

    (2002)
  • ChaviraV. et al.

    Latina mothers' attributions, emotions, and reactions to the problem behaviors of their children with developmental disabilities

    Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

    (2000)
  • CohenM.S.

    Families coping with childhood chronic illness: A research review

    Families, Systems, and Health

    (1999)
  • CohenS. et al.

    Social relationships and health

  • DellveL. et al.

    Stress and well-being among parents of children with rare diseases: A prospective intervention study

    Advanced Nursing

    (2006, Feb)
  • DodgsonJ. et al.

    Uncertainty in childhood chronic conditions and family distress of young children

    Journal of Family Nursing

    (2000)
  • DunstC.J. et al.

    Mediating influence of social support: Personal, family, and child outcomes

    American Journal on Mental Deficiency

    (1986)
  • DunstC.J. et al.

    Supporting and Strengthening Families: Volume 2—Methods, Strategies and Practices

    (1994)
  • DuvdevanyI. et al.

    Stress, social support and well-being of Arab mothers of children with intellectual disability who are served by welfare services in northern Israel

    Journal of Rehabilitation Research

    (2003)
  • DuvdevanyI. et al.

    Thought, consideration and future planning for out-of-home placement among parental caregivers of dependent adult children with psychiatric disabilities

    International Journal of Rehabilitation Research

    (2002)
  • DysonL.L.

    Fathers and mothers of school-age children with developmental disability: Parental stress, family functioning, and social support

    American Journal on Mental Retardation

    (1997)
  • EiserC.

    When the child's illness is life threatening: Impact on the parents

    Pediatric Nursing

    (1993)
  • Elliot BrownK.A. et al.

    Gender differences in parenting a child with cancer

    Social Work in Health Care

    (1996)
  • EmersonE.

    Mothers of children and adolescents with intellectual disability: Social and economic situation, mental health status, and the self-assessed social and psychological impact of the child's difficulties

    Journal of Intellectual Disability Research

    (2004)
  • EmersonE. et al.

    Self-reported well-being of women and men with intellectual disabilities in England

    American Journal on Mental Retardation

    (2008)
  • FlahertyF.M. et al.

    Positive adjustment in parents rearing children with Down syndrome

    Early Education and Development

    (2000)
  • FordeH. et al.

    Family support—an evaluation of an in-home support service

    Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing

    (2004)
  • FreidrichW.N. et al.

    Psychosocial assets of parents of handicapped and nonhandicapped children

    American Journal on Mental Deficiency

    (1981)
  • FriedrichW.N. et al.

    Coping resources and parenting mentally retarded children

    American Journal on Mental Deficiency

    (1985)
  • FreyK.S. et al.

    Stress and coping among parents of handicapped children: A multidimensional approach

    American Journal on Mental Retardation

    (1989)
  • GartnerA. et al.

    Supporting families with a child with a disability: An international outlook

    (1991)
  • HallS.

    An exploration of parental perception of the nature and level of support needed to care for their child with special needs

    Journal of Advanced Nursing

    (1996)
  • HoveyJ.K.

    Differences in parenting needs of fathers of children with chronic conditions related to family income

    J Child Health Care

    (2006)
  • JarbrinkK. et al.

    Measuring the parental services and cost impacts of children with autism spectrum disorder: A pilot study

    Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder

    (2003)
  • KandelI. et al.

    The child with a disability: Parental acceptance, management and coping

    Scientific World Journal

    (2007)
  • KandelJ. et al.

    The Arab community in Israel coping with intellectual and developmental disability

    Scientific World Journal

    (2004)
  • KatzS.

    When the child's illness is life threatening: Impact on the parents

    Pediatric Nursing

    (2002)
  • KazakA.E.

    Evidence-based interventions for survivors of child hood cancer and their families

    J Pediatric Psychology

    (2005)

    • Cited by (32)

    • A necessary evil: Residential placement of people with intellectual disability among the Palestinian minority in Israel

      2017, Research in Developmental Disabilities
      Citation Excerpt :

      Professional assistance and guidance is required primarily for the mothers, who contrary to the fathers expressed intense feelings of sorrow and distress, primarily because daily care-giving and household responsibilities fall within their traditional parental role (Bruns & Foerster, 2011; Gerstein, Crnic, Blacher, & Baker, 2009). This situation seems particularly pronounced in Palestinian society, where mothers of children with disability often bear the burden alone (Azar & Badr, 2010). Furthermore, programs for professional agents need to be developed, to raise awareness of, and impart skills in, family-centered services.

    • The Daily Experiences of Adolescents in Lebanon With Sickle Cell Disease

      2015, Journal of Pediatric Health Care
      Citation Excerpt :

      So instead I stay with my aunt or uncle, it is not really fair.” All participants had parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and siblings who helped with their needs, as is traditional in Middle Eastern countries (Azar & Badr, 2010). The primary support for adolescents came from family members, especially mothers, who were identified as the primary caregivers; they provided comfort, helped with activities of daily living, and assisted with medical treatments.

    • Parental wellbeing of Iranian families with children who have developmental disabilities

      2014, Research in Developmental Disabilities
      Citation Excerpt :

      Differences between mothers and fathers have been rarely studied internationally although with Taiwanese families mothers were more affected than fathers (Gau et al., 2012). However no differences were reported between Israeli parents in levels of child-related stress (Rimmerman, Turkel, & Crossman, 2003); a finding also confirmed with Lebanese parents of children with intellectual disabilities (Azar & Badr, 2010). In both these studies, less stress was associated with access to informal support; a relationship also endorsed with Arab mothers of children with intellectual disabilities living in Northern Israel (Duvdevany & Abboud, 2003) and mothers of children with autism living in the West Bank (Dababnah & Parish, 2013).

    • Anxiety Experienced by Students with Learning Disability in English Speaking Classroom

      2024, World Journal of English Language

    • Child Behavior Problems as Predictors of Stress in Parents of Children with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities in Four Emirates of the United Arab Emirates

      2023, Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities

    • Parenting stress and life satisfaction in families of children with disabilities: the mediating effect of social support in three Arab speaking countries

      2023, Journal of Family Studies
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text
    Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.