Parental Stress, Familial Burden and Quality of Life in Parents of Children with Down Syndrome

Abstract

The current study was conducted to explore the severity of parental stress, familial burden and how it effects on quality of life of those parents having children with Down Syndrome in Pakistan. Correlational research design was used to recruit the sample. The participants N= 110 (M=55; F=55) were recruited through purposive sampling from different institutes of special education and outpatient departments of psychiatry hospitals. Those who completed the inclusion criteria participated in the study by signing written informed consent. Parental Stress Scale (Berry & Jones, 1995) was used to determine the stress level.  Burden Scale for Family Caregivers (Grau et al., 2014) was used to analyze the burden severity, and Family Quality of Life Scale (Hoffman et al., 2006) was used to determine their effected life due to having children with Down Syndrome. The results found a negative relationship between parental stress (r=-.20, p < .05), and familial burden against quality of life among parents having children with Down syndrome. Also, there is significant positive relationship among parental stress and familial burden (r = .37, p < .001), that shows the parental stress increases with the increase in familial burden. However, independent samples t test showed fathers to have high stress and burden as compared to mothers. The study has implications in the field of clinical psychology. The results will be able to help practitioners to consider the proliferating factors of stress and burden among the parents of children having Down Syndrome.