This study has been conducted to examine the rearing attitude and rearing stress of the mothers of handicapped children through the parents' education program. Based on the preceding researches, the parents' education program was set up as the indepen...
This study has been conducted to examine the rearing attitude and rearing stress of the mothers of handicapped children through the parents' education program. Based on the preceding researches, the parents' education program was set up as the independent variable and the rearing attitude and rearing stress wereset up as the dependent variable and this study focused on examining the changes in the two variables through the parents' education program applied to the mothers of handicapped children.
The hypotheses for this study are set up as follows.
Hypothesis 1: The rearing attitude of the mothers of handicapped children will be changed through the parents' education program.
Hypothesis 2: The rearing stress of the mothers of handicapped children will be reduced through the parents' education program.
In order to verify these, this study used the parents' education program which has been restructured based on Parent Effectiveness Training (PET) and Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) and by referring to the preceding researches on parents' education needs and the order of the degree of satisfaction with parents' education, and in consideration of the purpose of this study and the types of handicapped children. Participants in this study are five mothers of handicapped children who have been undergoing rehabilitation treatment at the rehabilitation education centers, and the parents' education was conducted on them for an hour on every Thursday for a total of eight weeks from September 4, 2008 to October 23, 2008.
With regard to the data analysis in this study, in order to verify the qualitative changes in the rearing attitude and rearing stress, the parents' important responses that were described during the parents' education were examined, and in order to verify quantitative difference, the pre-and post-test using the rearing attitude scale and rearing stress scale was conducted and then Wilcoxon test, the non-parametric statistics, was conducted by using SPSS PC Program(14.0).
The results of this study are as follows.
First, the rearing attitude of the mothers of handicapped children has changed through the parents' education program. It could be seen that the mothers of handicapped children respected each of their children as an entity ofcharacter by reflecting on the authoritative and restrictive attitude and made efforts to foster their children's autonomy, and that they also accepted their children's troubles and problematic behaviors and appropriately coped with them and changed into intimately interactive relationships with their children. They also came to have confidence in rearing children by reducing the negative sentiments that they had as mother of handicapped children. The results of the pre- and post-test using the rearing attitude scale showed significant differences in autonomous attitudes, restrictive attitudes, affectionate attitudes, and rejecting attitudes.
Second, the rearing stress of the mothers of handicapped children was reduced through the parents' education program. While participating in the parent's education program, the rearing stress was reduced as the annoyance felt as the mother of handicapped children from taking care of their children even in daily self-help part of life for a long time was positively accepted by admitting to their children's being handicapped, and the negative sentiments felt in the course of rearing children were also positively accepted. Also during the course of the parents' education, the empathy within the groups was formed and during the discussions, in which diverse opinions were shared, the rearing stress felt in daily routine was diffused and the opportunity to exchange information was provided. These results brought about significant differences in the result of the pre- and post-test on the reduction of the rearing stress felt by the mothers of handicapped children.
This study is meaningful in that the parents' education in accordance with the needs of the mothers of handicapped childrenwas provided, based on the recognition that the parents' education program is important and essential in changes in the rearing attitude and rearing stress of the mothers of handicapped children. When the diverse and specialized programs for parents' education are developed and applied, the parents of handicapped children will perform the role of satisfactory parents by appropriately coping with the problems of the mothers rearing handicapped children and by getting rid of the resultant uneasiness.