Authors : Hossein Jenaabadi, Saeed Okati and Behzad Kamali
Abstract: The current study aimed to compare the level of mental pressure, marital adjustment and ways of coping among parents of retarded and normal children in Zahedan. This was a casual-comparative study. The statistical population included all parents of retarded and normal children in Zahedan in 2015. Due to severe problems in having access to the considered subjects, through applying convenience sampling method, 50 parents of retarded children and 50 parents of normal children were selected as the sample. To collect data, the locke and wallace marital adjustment test 15 items, the Lazarus ways of coping questionnaire 66 items and the Markham mental pressure inventory 38 items with some slight changes were used. The validity of the current study was examined using content validity and the total reliability of marital adjustment test, ways of coping questionnaire and mental pressure inventory was respectively 0.78, 0.88 and 0.82. To analyze the obtained data, statistical indicators including mean and standard deviation were used and to examine the research hypotheses, independent t-test was applied. The obtained results indicated that parents of retarded children experienced higher levels of mental pressure and had lower marital adjustment. Moreover, the findings revealed that there were significant differences between parents of retarded and normal children with regard to confrontive, distancing, self-controlling, accepting responsibility, seeking social support and escape-avoidance ways of coping. Additionally, when confronting with an issue, mothers of retarded children, compared to mothers of normal children were less likely to apply efficient problem-solving methods and were more likely to employ inefficient ways of coping.
Hossein Jenaabadi, Saeed Okati and Behzad Kamali, 2016. Comparing the Level of Mental Pressure, Marital Adjustment and Ways of Coping among Parents of Retarded and Normal Children. The Social Sciences, 11: 827-832.