Assessment of socio-psychologicaldeterminants of Turkish mothers of childrenwith cerebral palsy

Abstract

Mothers of children with disability have to provide most ofthe care for their children. We aimed to evaluate theimpact of having disabled children on Turkish mothers.Two hundred and forty-seven Turkish mothers of childrenwith cerebral palsy (CP) completed the Turkish version ofthe Impact on Family Scale, Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), and Nottingham Health Profile (NHP). Mothersfrom five different regions in Turkey who had at least onechild with CP and are free from any mental illness wereincluded in the study. Of the mothers 46.2% (n=114) werein the 28 to 37 age interval, 64.4% of them had completedprimary school, 95.5% were married and living with theirhusbands, and 93.5% were housewives. Total impact ofthat fact of disability to the mothers was 57.27 SD 10.08.The four sub-parameters, including financial support (9.60SD 2.29), general impact (30.56 SD 6.29), disruption ofsocial relations (24.42 SD 4.97), and coping (6.53 SD 2.06)were also computed. The average values for NHP were asfollows: NHPE: 56.63 SD 36.20; NHPP: 27.44 SD 29.32;NHPER: 46.97 SD 31.79; NHPSI: 36.47 SD 33.18;NHPS: 34.15 SD 29.92; NHPPM: 21.27 SD 18.80; NHPTOT: 271.21 SD 133.68. One hundred and eight mothers(43.7%) scored at least 17 on BDI; 56.3% scored 16 andbelow, indicating that about half of the mothers showeddepressive symptoms. The study demonstrated that Turk-ish mothers of children with cerebral palsy were at risk interms of socio-psychological determinants. Therefore, themother having a disabled child should also be identifiedearlier before planning the most suitable rehabilitationprogram to prevent socio-psychological problems.