Stress in mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Abstract

Purpose Most parents experience stress when their children are diagnosed with some kind of disability. This paper aims to compare the level of stress among mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Design/methodology/approach Research sample consisted of 150 mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (50 mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder, 50 mothers of children with intellectual disability and 50 mothers of children with specific learning disorder selected by convenience sampling). The Stress Response Inventory was used for measuring stress. One-way analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of variance and Scheffe post hoc tests were used for data analysis. Findings The results showed that the stress of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder was significantly higher than to the other groups of mothers. It was also observed that the stress of mothers of children with intellectual disability was significantly higher than the mothers of children with the specific learning disorder. Originality/value Therefore, designing and implementing preventive and interventional programs to decrease the stress of mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders, especially mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder is necessary.