Assessment of the family function perception and social support levels of mothers of children with Down syndrome.

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the family function perception and social support levels of mothers of the children with Down syndrome. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in seven private education and rehabilitation centers affiliated to three District National Education Directorates in city centers between 15 March 2012 and 28 February 2013. The study was conducted with mothers of 63 children with Down syndrome, who accepted to participate in the study, without using the method of sample group selection. The data were collected using the Questionnaire, Family Evaluation Scale, and Multidimentional scale of the perceived social scale. Percentiles, means, Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U test and correlation analysis were used to assess the data. Results: Evaluating the relation between the perception of the family functions and the perceived social support; it was determined that regarding family function perception of mothers, there was a significant inverse relation between their scores of subscales “Problem Solving”, “Communication”, “Roles”, “General Functions” and their total score. There was similar relation between their scores of social support dimensions of “Perceived from Family, Friend and a Significant Other” and their total social support score.Besides, there were significant inverse correlations between scores of the “Affective Involvement” and “Behavioral Control” subscales of the perception of family functions and scores of the social support dimension of “perceived from the family, a significant other” and total score. Conclusion: The results revealed that mothers of the children with Down syndrome fulfill their family functions, while the mothers having higher levels of social support carry out the family functions more effectively.