The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the family support program using problem-solving strategy on the parenting stress and the family empowerment of parents with children of developmental delay.
For the purpose, twenty parents...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the family support program using problem-solving strategy on the parenting stress and the family empowerment of parents with children of developmental delay.
For the purpose, twenty parents of children with developmental delay were selected from one special-kindergarten. They were equivalently assigned to experimental or control groups after considering age, income, education, the degree of child's severity and behavior problem.
Participants in the experimental group attended weekly 90-minute program for 8 weeks. The Parenting Stress Index/Short Form developed by Abidin (1990) and the Family Empowerment Scale developed by Singh, Curtis, Ellis, Nicholson, Villani & Wechsler (1995) were used for this study.
ANCOVA was used to analysed the collected data in this study utilizing parenting stress pretest score and the family empowerment pretest score as covariates.
The results obtained in this study are summarized as follows:
1. Significance difference was found between experimental group and control group in parenting stress level, showing significant decrease in the experimental group compared to the control group And in 'Parental Distress', a sub-category of parenting stress, significance difference was found between experimental group and control group. Significant decrease of 'Parental Distress' in the experimental group compared to the control group was found. But, in 2 sub-categories of parenting stress such as 'Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction' and 'Difficult Child' significance differences were not found between experimental group and control group.
2. Significance difference was found between experimental group and control group in family empowerment level, showing significant increase in the experimental group compared to the control group. And in 2 sub-categories of family empowerment such as 'Systems Advocacy' and 'Knowledge' significance differences were found. Significant increase of these sub-categories in the experimental group compared to the control group were found. But, in 2 sub-categories of parenting stress such as 'Competence' and 'Self-Efficacy' significance differences were not found between experimental group and control group.
The results in the present study sugest that the family support program using problem-solving strategy is effective for the parents with children of disabilities to reduce the parenting stress and to reinforce family empowerment. And the results can be analyzed that these positive effects come form the emotional support with other parents, information sharing, and increase of the parent's coping competence after problem-solving training. Also, this study suggests that it is necessary to expand family support program toward the parents with primary school students and other family members including father.