Parental Stressors and Psychological Wellbeing of Parents of Children with Special Needs: Implications for Counselling.
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2022
Authors
Anyama, S. C.
Adeniyi, S. O.
Bolaji, S. D.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
uniprintNT, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909 Australia
Abstract
Parenting stress constitutes a major challenge not only to the parents, children, and families but also to counsellors, special educators, and society at large. It is worrisome that parents of children with special needs tend to be experiencing higher stressors which may affect their mental health. This study examined parental stressors, types of special needs, and psychological wellbeing of parents of children with special needs in Lagos State, Nigeria. Two research hypotheses guided this study, and a descriptive survey research design was used in the study. Three hundred parents of children with special needs were sampled using a stratified sampling technique (150 mothers and 150 fathers) from fifteen (15) public and private Special Education Needs Schools (SENS) in Lagos State, Nigeria. A 30-item researcher-made questionnaire titled Parental Stress and Psychological Wellbeing Questionnaire (PSPW@) was used for data collection. The questionnaire has a reliability coefficient of 0.74. The data collected were analysed using two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Fisher's Least Square Method statistical tools at 0.05 level of significance. Among the analysed results, the study showed that fathers have significantly higher psychological wellbeing than mothers. Other results are well captured in the findings. The implications for counselling were equally discussed based on these findings. The study recommends among others counselling interventions and programs that can reduce parental stress, particularly child-related stressors and promote effective social support to help parents of children with special needs cope with their parental stress.
Description
Scholarly article
Keywords
Parental stressors , Children , counseling intervention , psychological wellbeing , Special needs , Research Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Education
Citation
Anyama, S.C., Adeniyi, S.O. & Bolaji, S.D. (2022a). Parental Stressors and Psychological Wellbeing of Parents of Children with Special Needs: Implications for Counselling. In S. Bolaji, A. Oni & S. Anyama (Eds): African Education and Diaspora Studies. Darwin NT, 33-45. Australia