An Analysis of Factors Influencing Parenting Stress in Children with Epilepsy

Purpose: This study was done to explore disease factors in children with epilepsy, parental factors and resource factors that are related to parenting stress and identify effects of each factor on parenting stress. Methods: Participants were 131 parents who had children who visited a hospital or were hospitalized due to epilepsy. Data collection was done between September 17 and November 17, 2012, and self-report surveys were used. Results: In Stepwise multiple regression analysis, factors influencing parenting stress in children with epilepsy were marital communication, educational background of parents, parenting efficacy, children’s development delay, drug treatment and surgical treatment as a method of epilepsy treatment. These factors explained 34.6% (F=13.22, p<.001) of the variance in parenting stress. Conclusion: The findings indicate that parental factors (educational background of parents and parenting efficacy) and resource factors (marital communication) have higher explanatory power than disease factors of the children. Thus, it is importance to assess the capacity of parents through self-evaluation, and to assess barriers to marital communication when developing parenting stress intervention programs. Furthermore, both parents should be involved in interventions for parenting stress.