This study aims to clarify the manifestations of stress among the parents of the disabled children to whom inclusive education have been given, to provide the fundamental data for intervention programs intended to relieve their stress attributed to in...
This study aims to clarify the manifestations of stress among the parents of the disabled children to whom inclusive education have been given, to provide the fundamental data for intervention programs intended to relieve their stress attributed to integrating their children, and ultimately to create desirable educational settings where the parents of disabled children can be exposed to minimal stress.
The research questions are as follows:
First, is there significant difference in the level of stress between parental genders? Second, is there significant difference in the level of stress depending on the child's gender? Third, is there significant difference in the severity of stress depending on the child's educational age? Finally, what are the most stressful events to the parents of children at integrated school, and their ranking?
For measuring tool, the modified Parenting Stress Index (PSI) that was originally developed by Abidin (1990) and subsequently modified by Lee, Han Woo (2002) was employed as a rating scale, which consisted of twenty-four questions in total including those for children (12 questions) and for parents (12 questions), respectively. In addition, so as to identify any school events making parents feel stressed, a preliminary survey was performed, determining the detailed items of such the school events among the parents whose disabled children had gotten inclusive education.
For methodology, the survey was carried out over about seven weeks from September 3 to October 19, 2007; specifically, 300 questionnaire sheets were distributed to and 198 ones collected from six (6) elementary schools, seven (7) middle schools and four (4) high schools by mail. Of those collected, 174 questionnaire sheets were used as the final analytic data, excluding incompletely or poorly answered ones.
For statistical analysis, SPSS 10.0 for Windows was used. To determine any difference in the level of parenting stress depending on parent's and child's gender, t-test technique was applied. And, for the purpose of measuring any difference in the severity of parenting stress depending on child's educational age, ANOVA technique was used at the significance levels of p < .01 and p < .05. Lastly, with the intention of ascertaining the most stressful school events to parents at integrated schools depending on parent's gender, child's gender and child's educational age and their ranking, the mean comparison technique from descriptive statistics was employed.
The results of this study are summarized as follows:
First, there was no difference in the level of parenting stress between parental genders. However, for emotional factor in child's area and suppressive factor in parent's area, the father felt more stressed in the aspect of parenting stress, compared to the mother.
Second, there was no difference in the level of parenting stress felt by parents between disabled child's genders. However, for activity factor in child's area, male children's parents felt higher levels of parenting stress than those felt by female children's parents.
Third, as a result of comparing the levels of parenting stress depending upon the disabled child's educational age, the parents of elementary school students felt the most severe stress among parents whose disabled children were receiving inclusive education.
Finally, as a result of identifying the stressful school events to the parents of disabled children at integrated schools, the parents, especially of elementary school students, felt the highest level of stress from overnight or longer activities outside school, for example, training camp or school excursion.