Stress, Appraisal, and Coping in Mothers of Disabled and Nondisabled Children

Abstract

The cognitive-behavioral model of stress and coping provided the framework for this study of mothers of physically disabled children (n = 69) and mothers of nondisabled children (n = 63). The first aim was to test for differences between groups in responses to stressful parenting events. As hypothesized, mothers of disabled children reported higher levels of depressive symptomatology. Differences in psychological distress and health status approached significance. The second aim was to explore the mediating influences of coping strategies and cognitive appraisals. As predicted, emotion-focused coping was related to increased psychological distress in mothers of disabled children whereas problem-focused coping was associated with decreased distress. Both relationships were significant even after controlling for differences in type of parenting stressor. Hierarchical regressions showed that 58 and 25% of the variance in psychological distress was explained by the independent variables; however, the predictors were different for the two groups of mothers. Factors that may explain the differential effectiveness of coping and appraisal, and clinical implications of this study are discussed.

A structural equation model relating adiposity, psychosocial indicators of body image and depressive symptoms among adolescents

“…30 Depressive symptom subscale scores correlate well with the Center for Epidemiology Studies-Depression scale (r ¼ 0.89), 31 and persons with high scores were 6.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for a mental health problem than those with lower scores. 29,32 For the current analysis, each item was used as an observed indicator (that is, manifest variable) of a 'depressive symptoms' latent variable.…”

“…[29][30][31][32] The scale contains five items that asked students/respondents to report how often in the past week (never, sometimes, fairly often, very often) they felt, alone; indifferent or uninterested in things; cry easily or feel like crying; depressed or disheartened; and anxious about the future. Scores were computed by averaging responses.…”

Motinų, auginančių raidos sutrikimų turinčius vaikus, motinystės streso ypatumai

“…Kadangi vaikai, turintys raidos sutrikimų, turi kitokių poreikių nei sveiki vaikai ar sergantys lėtinėmis alerginėmis ligomis, motinos dažniau jaučiasi kontroliuojamos ir priklausomos nuo savo vaikų poreikių ir reikalavimų. Tai galėtų paaiškinti aptiktus suvaržymo ir socialinės izoliacijos skirtumus (Miller, Gordon, Daniel, & Diller, 1992) -vaiko, turinčio ypatingų poreikių, auginimas šeimoje keičia socialinius santykius su aplinkiniais, laisvalaikio galimybes, tokios šeimos gali jausti socialinę stigmą iš aplinkinių.…”

‘When chronic disability meets acute stress: psychological and functional changes‘

“…Two emotion-focused coping strategies, seeking social support and positive reappraisal, have also been shown to be effective when used by these parents 3,6,7 . On the other hand, there have been consistent reports of the deleterious effects of other emotion-focused strategies such as avoidance, wishful thinking, self-controlling, and self-blaming coping for these parents 4,6,8,9 . Nevertheless, the experiences of parents whose children have a chronic disability and are also encountering a significant acute stressor have received very little research attention.…”

“…Coping strategies used by such parents have also been investigated 3,4,5,6,7 . Although there have been conflicting findings regarding the effectiveness of some coping strategies, active coping strategies (i.e.…”