Coping and psychological states among parents of children with specialneeds

Abstract

Past studies from various cultures have reported that parents of children with special needs experience more distress. The present study aimed to explore the psychological states of local Chinese parents of children with special needs in Hong Kong with the construct of coping flexibility incorporated. Participants were 116 parents of children with special needs and 62 parents of children without special needs. Results indicated that Chinese parents of children with special needs had higher anxiety and lower life satisfaction than did parents of children without special needs. The former also had lower perceived social support, perceived controllability, and coping flexibility for childcare than did parents in the control group. Another aim of the current study was to identify factors for prediction of anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction. Status of having children with special needs predicted depression, but not anxiety and life satisfaction. Social support not only demonstrated a main effect on anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction, but also showed a buffering effect on coping flexibility for childcare in predicting anxiety and depression respectively. Social support moderated the relation between controllability and life satisfaction as well. The results in this study guide us in designing suitable services for parents.