Parental stress in families with and without special needs children

Special Needs

Parental Stress on Married Couples With Special Needs Children

Parenting is an inherently challenging process for a married couple, requiring a great deal of adaptation, compromise and cooperation. Often, the realities of parenting can impose serious strain on the individual partners and on the marital relationship itself. The pressures and changes associated with parenting can impose stress on both the parents and on their relationship. For those who have children with special needs, the changes and pressures are likely to be even greater, more demanding and more disruptive of pre-existing relationship expectations. For parents with children who suffer from a chronic health condition, from a critical developmental delay, from a physical disability or from a behavioral disturbance, there is cause to contend that the stress of parenting is magnified by the stress of simultaneously managing this specialized set of needs. This underscores the premise of the research proposal contained here and provides a basis for the study's contribution to the fields of family psychology and special needs parenting.

Problem Statement:

At the heart of the research proposal is the set of problems implicated by poor management of individual and relational stress in parents with special needs child. Poor management of these stresses can lead to a wide array of adverse consequences that the present research would set out to prevent. Particular among them is the distinct developmental risk represented to the special needs child in a parent failing to cope with related stress. According to the article by Neece et al. (2012), "there is consistent evidence that children with cognitive delays are more likely to have significant behavior problems and to develop psychopathology. Studies have found heightened externalizing and internalizing behavior problems relative to typically developing children." (Neece et al., p. 48-49) Neece et al. identify parental stress as a critically determinant externalizing force in predicting behavior problems. This underscores the core problem of reciprocity between special needs parenting and poorly managed stress. The research here will set out to produce research that can help identify and assist those in particular risk groups for this type of stress.

An additional problem of critical importance to the research is that of relational stress. The impingement of parenting stresses on marriage can place a strain on the ability of one or both partners to dedicate sufficient attention to relationship maintenance. According to Eddy & Walker (1999), "many studies document the impact of children with chronic illnesses and disabilities on both individual outcomes, such as depression or life satisfaction, and dyadic outcomes, such as marital satisfaction or marital stability." (p. Eddy & Walker, p. 11-12) Evidence consistently supports the claim that poor management of parenting stress from raising special needs children can have deleterious effects on marital satisfaction, stability and even longevity. These problems underscore the hypothesis stated hereafter.

Hypothesis:

Based on the preliminary findings stated above, the research here proceeds from the hypothesis that the parents of special needs children should have significantly higher levels of parenting stress than will parents with no special needs child. This hypothesis is predicated on two key Operational Definitions. First, Parenting Stress concerns the emotional, physical and psychological strain placed both on individual parents and on the marital relationship of each couple. The second key operational definition, Special Needs will refer to children who suffer from a chronic health condition, from a critical developmental delay, from a physical disability or from a behavioral disturbance. These two definitions will interact extensively throughout the present research proposal as the Special Needs status of the child will be taken as the independent variable and the Parenting Stress present in respondents will be taken as the dependent variable.

Literature Review:

Before delineating the intended research design, it is appropriate to provide some essential background reference on the subject at hand. A number of sources provide cause to argue that the problems identified at the outset of the proposal have varied and permeating consequences that are likely to translate into parenting stress. For instance, the research by Corman and Kaestner (1992) found data to suggest having an unhealthy child increases the likelihood that a woman be unmarried. The researcher infers from this that marital stability and longevity may be challenged or disrupted where a child of the special need set identified above is present. This is a consequence of negative health conditions in a child in a report by Sabbeth & Leventhal (1984) as well. This found that parents of children with chronic health problems were prone to having decreased marital satisfaction when they were compared to parents of children without chronic health problems.

More current research confirms that this decreased satisfaction remains a determinant factor in generating familial tension and distress. Accordingly, Daire et al. (2011) report that "there is a growing literature supporting the notion that birth of a child with a disability generates intense emotional distress for the family (Hughes, 1999; Pelchat & Lefebvre, 2004). Spratt, Saylor, and Macias (2007) discussed the stigma of having a child with a disability as one stressor for parents. Beyond the initial impact, 'a child with a disability poses many crises over his/her life- time.... Parents of children with disabilities must continually adapt to changing circumstances and needs of the child, with stress being a frequent consequence' (Hughes, 1999, p. 271)." (Daire et al., p. 177)

This is an important point of consideration and indicates that the demands placed on the parents of special needs children will call for a level of marital compatibility, cooperation and preparedness that is higher than that of non-special needs parents. In a study on adoptive parents of special needs children, one research article finds that a lack of preparation in particular distinguishes this experience. According to Baskin et al. (2011), "many adoptive parents are unprepared to deal with their adopted children's elevated level of needs, which creates substantial obstacles and stress for the parents to manage. Additional stresses that adoptive families encounter include experiencing greater financial strain, not knowing how to cope with new challenges, not knowing the histories of their newly adopted children, and having little or no postadoption agency support for coping with the stresses (Forbes & Dziegielewski, 2003)." (Baskin et al., p. 935)

Indeed, as this research endeavor points to the idea of increasing available support to the parents of special needs children, we consider the inherent frequency of the special needs case. Lutenbacher et al. (2005) report that "Recent estimates of the number of U.S. children with a chronic ill- ness or special health care need range from between 13% to 31% of children younger than the age of 18, or almost 10 to 20 million children" (Lutenbacher et al., p. 163) This denotes a significant public health issue.

Research Design:

The primary research approach will involve two distinct groups of respondents, those couples with a child possessing special needs and those couples with at least one non-special needs child. Given the core commonality of parenting and the intent to examine a differential in consequences relating to parental stress, the appropriate research design would be a Causal Comparative Design. According to Fraenkel & Wallen (2010), "causal-comparative research attempts to determine the cause or consequences of differences that already exist between or among groups of individuals." (Fraenkel & Wallen, p. 1) in this chase, we know that there is a distinction in the demands placed upon parents in the two sample populations based on the status of special needs in each participating couple's child. Therefore, it is appropriate to employ the causal comparative approach in order to determine if parents with a special needs child suffer from more parental stress than do the parents of a child with no special needs.

Methodology:

Under the scope of the research design, the methodology will rely on several tested and externally validated research parenting stress tests. Here, the dependent variable of parenting stress will be measured by the use of the Family Impact Questionnaire, conceived and validated by Donenberg & Baker (1993), and the use of a modified version of the Parental Distress Subscale of the Parenting Stress/Index Short form, conceived and validated by Abidin (1995). The data gathered from the Family Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) (Donenberg & Baker 1993) which tells us how a particular child impacts the family, will provide the research with scores reflecting parents' reports of negative feelings about parenting and its negative impact on their marital relationship.

An ideal sample size would be comprised of between 25 and 30 participant couples per group. Through contact with local pediatrician offices and the support of office personnel there within, the researcher would recruits parents for participation. The research would propose to leave packets containing the above-noted inventory questionnaires and proper releases with a self- addressed stamped envelope for each participating couple to submit upon completion. Participants would be limited by a number of critical factors. First and foremost, the study calls for married couples with one child. For reasons of creating a potentially significant outlying factor, families with multiple children would be excluded from participation. Likewise, the study would not include unmarried couples, single-parent homes, or couples without children. With 50 to 60 participants couples gathered and fulfilling the necessary qualifications for division into the two categories, those with a Special Needs child will be identified as the SN group whereas those with a non-Special Needs child will be identified as the SNS group.

Statistical analysis will rely on the use of a t-test, an appropriate mode of assessing comparative inventory scores and their meaning in the case of this particular study design. According to Trochim (2006), "the t-test assesses whether the means of two groups are statistically different from each other. This analysis is appropriate whenever you want to compare the means of two groups, and especially appropriate as the analysis for the posttest-only two-group randomized experimental design." (Trochim, p. 1)

Findings:

Ultimately, the inventory responses and the statistical analysis conducted through the aforementioned t-test demonstrate a clear distinction in the parental stresses experienced by those in the Special Needs category vs. those in the non-Special Needs category. For the SN group, higher levels of parental stress are experienced both in the areas of individual stress and relational stress. This produces higher levels of negative feeling, according to inventory responses, relating to the experience of parenting and to the quality of the marital relationship.