Anxiety and Stress among Parents of Children with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Background: Compared to parents of children who are growing normally, parents of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are more likely to experience distress. Aim: The purpose of the study is to determine anxiety and stress level among parents of children with intellectual disability and also to find significant difference in anxiety and stress levels based on demographic variables (gender, age, education, family type, occupation and economic status). Sample and tools: The Parent Stress Scale (Berry and Jones, 1995) – an 18 item self-report scale to measure the levels of stress experienced by parents, GAD-7 (generalized anxiety-7) – a 7 item self-report scale by Robert et al., 2006, were administered to a purposive sample of 52 parents of clients (CWID) in Hyderabad, India. The collected data was analysed using standard statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, t- test, one way ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation test. Result: The result indicated a significant difference in anxiety and stress levels among parents with respect to gender. Also, there is a significant positive correlation between anxiety and stress levels of parents of children with intellectual disability.