This study set out to test the effects of parenting stress and stress coping styles of fathers with children with developmental disabilities on their parenting efficacy.
The subjects include 117 fathers with children with developmental disabilities ...
This study set out to test the effects of parenting stress and stress coping styles of fathers with children with developmental disabilities on their parenting efficacy.
The subjects include 117 fathers with children with developmental disabilities aged 0∼13 and randomly sampled from ten hospitals, welfare centers, and private institutions in the Seoul metropolitan area. The level of parenting efficacy was measured with the Parenting Sense of Competence(PSOC) developed by Gibaud-Wandersonman(1987) and translated and revised by Shin Suk-jae(1997); parenting stress was measured with an inventory of 25 items from Hwang Gyeong-ja(2001); and stress coping styles were measured with the Way of Coping Checklist developed by Folkman and Lazarus(1985) and revised and supplemented by Kim Jeong-hee and Lee Jang-ho(1985).
For data analysis, the investigator obtained descriptive statistics to examine the general trends of measurement variables and performed multiple regression analysis to investigate the effects of parenting stress and stress coping styles on parenting efficacy among fathers with children with developmental disabilities.
The findings were summarized as follows:
First, the fathers with children with developmental disabilities surveyed in the study recorded mean scores that were slightly higher than "average," the middle scores of the inventory, in parenting efficacy, which indicates that they evaluated their parenting abilities more positively than "average." Their mean scores of parenting stress were slightly lower than the middle point of the scale, which suggests that the difficulties they experienced while raising children were slightly lower than the average level. In situations where they experienced difficulties with child rearing, the fathers tended to use the styles of solving problems and stressors fundamentally, asking for help from others, and imagining a more ideal situation with some distance from the current event slightly more than average and use the style of managing or controlling stress-related emotions less than average.
Second, both parenting stress and problem-focused coping of stress coping styles turned out to have effects on parenting efficacy among the fathers with children with developmental disabilities, which means that when they experienced less parenting stress and engaged in more activities of focusing on problems they faced themselves and solving them to cope with stress, they showed a higher level of positive evaluation that they were bringing up their children right and able to solve problems emerging in their relationships with their children.
The findings imply that the regulation of parenting stress and the training of stress coping styles can be effective measures to increase parenting efficacy when developing an intervention program for the parenting efficacy of fathers with children with developmental disabilities.