Shannon McOmber
Background and Significance:
An estimated 4 million children in the United States have a disability (Disability Statistic Center). How families adapt to the situation of raising a CWD may be related to a number of factors including the parents’ level and type of social support. Clearly, social support serves as an important resource to couples and families raising typically developing children; however, it may be an especially important resource for families who are raising a CWD. Since there is minimal literature examining this topic, and rarely are fathers’ perceptions of social support measured, one purpose of this study was to examine mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of social support when raising a CWD and then determine if there were differences according to parent gender and the type of disability.
Data also suggest mothers raising a CWD tend to have more depression than families raising typically developing children (Disability Statistic Center). However, there is little information in the literature related to depression in these families according to the type of disability the child has. This indicates a need for further assessment of parental depression in these families. In addition, many early studies on families raising a CWD rely on reports primarily obtained from mothers whereas data from fathers are frequently overlooked, and may be different than mothers’ data. Therefore another purpose of this study was to gather data on mothers’ and fathers’ perception of their own depression and then determine if these perceptions vary according to parent gender and according to the type of disability the child has. Finally, since there is minimal discussion in the literature on the relationship between parental depression and social support in families raising a CWD, a final purpose of the study was to examine the linkage between these two variables (depression and social support) in these families.
Purpose:
The purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to examine parental perceptions of social support and parental depression in families raising CWD. Research questions consisted of: 1. Is there a difference in parental perceptions of depression and social support in families raising CWD according to parent gender? 2. Is there a difference in parental perceptions of depression and social support according to the type of disability?
Methodology and Procedure:
This quantitative study was an extension of an ongoing interdisciplinary research project examining family adaptation to disability and chronic conditions. The parents in this part of the study live in the intermountain west, and were recruited from the Pediatric Diabetes Management Clinic at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, snowball sampling, and conferences for families raising CWD. A total of 209 families raising children with autism Down syndrome, multiple disabilities, diabetes, or orthopedic conditions participated. 94.5% of the participants were Caucasian, and 55% of these families made between $50,000 – $75,000. 95.8% of the fathers of these families worked full time with 43.5% of the mothers not working and 40.0% working part-time. After receiving IRB approval, families were mailed a consent letter, instructions, and a set of questionnaires to complete. The parents participating in this part of the study have completed the 21-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale (Radloff, 1977) developed for use in the general population. The CES-D includes statements describing typical feelings (e.g., I felt I was just as good as other people, I felt hopeful about the future, and my sleep was restless). Mothers and fathers rated how often these feelings occurred (1-rarely or none of the time; 4-most or all of the time). Higher scores indicated higher levels of depression. Parents also completed the 20-item Family Support Scale developed for use in the general population. The Family Support Scale (Dunst, Triette & Deal) lists possible sources of support to the family (e.g. parents, spouse, relatives, friends, children, co-workers, healthcare providers, other parents) and mothers and fathers rated the support they received from each in a 3-6 month period as not available to extremely helpful.
Results:
Analysis indicated no significant difference between mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of social support. There was, however, a significant difference between perceptions of social support according to the type of disability. Parents of children with Down syndrome received significantly higher levels of support than did parents of typically developing children and parents of children with multiple disabilities; parents of children with autism received significantly higher levels of social support than parents of children with multiple disabilities. Significant differences were also found according to parent gender and depression, and type of disability and depression. Mothers rated themselves as having higher levels of depression than fathers. Parents of children with autism had higher levels of depression than parents of typically developing children and parents of children with Down syndrome.
Implications:
It is important to provide interventions assisting mothers of children with CWD and both parents of children with autism cope with depression. In addition, providing social support to parents of children with multiple disabilities is especially critical since they reported lower levels of social support than parents raising children with Down syndrome, autism, other disabilities and typically developing children.