Authors : Emine Ahmeto lu and Neriman Aral
Abstract: The study aims to determine the anxiety levels of mothers of children with mental disabilities and examine whether the sex of these children, number of siblings, birth order and mothers` education level cause a difference in anxiety levels. The study was carried out with the mothers of children with mental disabilities attending Trakya University Education, Research and Implementation Center for Children with Mental and Physical Disabilities in Edirne. A total of 100 volunteer mothers were admitted in the study. Data about the children and their family members were collected through a General Information Form designed by the researchers. A Questionnaire on Resources and Stress developed by Holroyd and translated into Turkish and tested for validity and reliability by Akkok was used to identify the anxiety levels of the mothers having children with mental disabilities. The results showed that the mothers` anxiety levels did not differ significantly according to the variations which are sex of children, number of siblings, birth order and mothers` education level (p>0.05). However, the mothers having sons, those whose second or later children were disabled, those with more than one child and those with university degrees were found to have higher anxiety levels.
Emine Ahmeto lu and Neriman Aral , 2007. A Study of the Anxiety Levels of Mothers of Children with Mental Disabilities . Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 4: 513-517.