Comparison of stress in parents and the level of dependency of the child with disabilities

To know the Relationship between parents' stress level with the degree of dependence on their children With disabilities, a descriptive, correlational, transverse study was carried out, with users of the Telethon Baja California Sur Children's Rehabilitation Center.

To measure the stress level of the parents, the Stress appreciation scale , which was compared to the degree of dependence on their children according to the Weefim scale (WEE - Functional Independence Measure) - Measurement of functional independence in children, for data analysis the Pearson test was used to search for correlation. To this end, the nominal information in numerical information was translated. Obtaining as a result that the level of parents of parents and the level of dependence of children with disabilities does not present a directly proportional relationship, on the contrary an inversely proportional relationship.

In this Psychology Line article, we will present a Comparison of stress in parents and the level of dependency of the child with disabilities.

1. State of the matter
2. Theoretical framework
3. Methodological design
4. Method
5. Results:
6. Conclusions

State of the matter

The general objective of this study is to determine whether there is an increase in the level of stress of parents of children with disabilities when the degree of dependency for the activities of the daily life of their children is greater is.

It is important to recognize that, although it is true that all children provide parents with a mixture of concerns and joys, the parents of a child with disabilities usually continue to exercise what could be called paternity active more time than most than most.

The more prevented the child, the harder it is For parents not having to take care of him. Among the caregivers of children with total dependence, there is the great concern of who will take care of their child, when they are no longer, (Sinason, 1999) due mainly to their children being more dependent in the realization of the activities Basic of daily life, which are characterized by being universal, being linked to survival and human condition, basic needs, being aimed at oneself and assuming a minimum cognitive effort, automating its execution early, around 6 years age, in order to achieve personal independence. Usually within ABVDs, food, toilet, bathroom, dress, personal mobility, sleep and rest are included. (Moruno & Romero, 2006)

On the other hand, there are certain weight factors that also exert their influence on the family and are all those specifically linked to the deficit. Thus, for example, the type of child disorder, whether sensory, motor and/or mental, and the degree of commitment of the same. So A huge feeling of responsibility appears Given the needs imposed by disability. Therefore what is given and what is received does not seem to be enough. There is something that is missing and that can never be fully covered.

Have a child with a deficit imposes A new challenge: how to remain a person, in addition to that son's father. The fact that parents are, first of all, people seem to be forgotten, people. The comings and goings to the offices of the specialists, the permanent satisfaction of the physical needs of their most demanding and dependent on them, the reinforcement of the rehabilitation exercises and the cost of the treatments. A mountain of demands and responsibilities usually falls on your shoulders preventing your own space and denying any possibility of pleasure. The mother is the one that is usually more trapped in the situation. (Núñez, 2010).

Theoretical framework

Luna, et al (2012) concludes that Some changes arise in the organization of families With sons and daughters with disabilities from the moment of the news and last until the boy or girl is an adult. Among them are the affectations at the couple, that is, between spouses, modifications can be found in marital life, from the abandonment of the couple to new forms of interaction between the spouses such as, for example, the intervention of the male in the raising of sons or daughters from the labor insertion of women, etc. Which could be perceived as adverse stimuli, causing, in addition to negative emotional responses, a damage to people's health.

Many of these damaging effects They are produced not by the stimuli themselves, but by the reactions to them. Therefore, the expression of negative emotions can have unfavorable effects on those who experience them and on those with whom they interact. Walter Cannon, (cited by Carlson, 1996) The physiologist who criticized James-Lang theory, introduced the term stress, to refer to the physiological reaction caused by the perception of adverse or threatening situations.

In studies carried out by Nauert (2009) on parental stress with children with special needs, it was found that parents of children with disabilities had a greater degree of stimuli that caused them stress And a greater number of days in which they had at least one stimulus that would generate stress, compared to parents who had children without disabilities. They also experienced a greater number of physical problems related to health problems.

On the other hand, saliva samples were evaluated to measure the cortisol level (biological marker that plays an important role in joining exposure to stress to health problems) and was obtained by response that daily cortisol patterns of parents of children with children with Disability, they rose chronicly to a much higher level than normal, in days when parents spent more time with their children.

On the other hand Martínez, et al (2012) in the studies they did to determine if there was a correlation between the cargo of the caregiver and the perceived dependence In a sample of informal caregivers of minors with severe cerebral palsy, they found that only a small group perceived an intense burden and most considered as totally dependent in the physical appearance to the minors.

Pearson's correlation analysis showed that the perception of the Physical dependence on care receptors is not related to that of the caregiver's charge, So it is concluded that in this sample of caregivers physical dependence in patients does not influence the perceived load. (Martínez, et al, 2012) In professional practice it is observed that sometimes the level of parental stress is related to a greater or lesser degree to the level of dependence in the ABVD of children with some disability and, taking into account the Studies carried out can be seen, on the one hand, that parents with a child with disabilities receive more stimuli that cause stress compared to parents that their children do not have disabilities (Nauert, 2009) and, on the other hand it is observed that Informal minors with severe cerebral palsy, who consider these minors, as totally dependent in the physical appearance, do not perceive that their care implies a greater burden. (Martínez, et al, 2012).

Based on this, a descriptive, correlational, transversal study was carried out, to determine the relationship between the appreciation of stress in the parents of children with disabilities with the level of dependence of the child for the activities of daily life, taking into account a population of minors with different types of disability.

The results obtained show that The parental stress level is not directly related to the greater degree of dependence on children With disabilities regarding their ABVD, but on the contrary, it is inversely proportional, being so that the greater the dependency of the children is less the stress of the parents and to the lowest degree of dependence the level of parental stress is greater.

These findings allow rethink the care needs of families They have a minor with disabilities, from a different look since it is usually considered that when the deficit is greater, the need for parental attention and wear is also (Núñez, 2010).

Methodological design

In order to determine if there is an increase in the stress level of parents of children with disabilities when the degree of dependency for the basic activities of daily life is greater, it was carried out a descriptive, correlational, transverse investigation To determine if this relationship exists and thus, to verify or discard the assumption that the greater degree of dependence for the ABVDs of a minor with disabilities, increases the level of parents of the parents.

The study was carried out at the Teletón Baja California Sur Children's Rehabilitation Center, where they are treated minors with disabilities that present disorders of neuro-musculo origin.skeletal, which present alterations to health states that affect nervous, muscular and bone systems (neuromusculoskeletic system and relative to movement) that have an impact on body posture, muscle tone and/or quality of the movement (motor skills).

Each of the neuromuscular disorders has a variety of different symptoms and signs, which lead to a functional disability in relation to the degree of independence in ABVD. (Teletón, 1999-2009) The investigation was approved by the Internal Committee of Ethics and Research of the Telethon Child Rehabilitation Center of Baja California Sur, being registered with the number 1402.

Method

Participants

The characteristics of the study population consisted of being fathers and/or mothers of children with disabilities, Active in the CRIT BCS in the period in which the scales were applied and that their children had any of the following disorders: medullary injury, neuromuscular diseases, osteoarticular diseases, congenital and genetic diseases and children under four years of age with brain injury or neurological damage and established. Forming a total population of 300 patients. A probabilistic sampling of a stratified random type of simple affixing was performed, to achieve a total sample of 100 participants, distributed in 5 strata According to the degree of assistance that patients require to perform their ABVD.

Material and method

In order to identify the level of stress in parents of children with disabilities, the Stress appreciation scale, In its apparese of general stress scale to obtain the evaluation of the incidence and the intensity with which the different stressful situations affect the life of each subject. The intensity is measured with a Likert type scale of 0 (nothing) to 3 (very much). (Honey & Fernández-Seara, 2014).

To identify the Degree of dependence For the activities of the daily life of children with disabilities, the clinical file of patients, Prior authorization of the parents by signature of informed consent, and the results obtained from the application of the Weefim scale (WEE - Functional Independence Measure) were used - Measurement of functional independence in children. This scale consists of 18 elements that contemplate three areas: personal care, mobility and cognition, applicable to children and young people from 6 months of age to 21 years.

The evaluation of each of the elements is 1 to 7 points, achieving a maximum of 126 points, which varies depending on its age as it shows Table 1. This scale was chosen, since it determines the severity of disability and the need for assistance, since it values ​​the degree of carrying out the activities of daily life and independence. (Weefim, 1998, 2000)

Based on the information obtained, 20 participants were distributed in the study, in each of the strata that the Weefim manages, as indicated by the Table 2. And the level of stress in parents was correlated with the degree of dependence of children for daily life activities. T

They were taken into account as intervening variables, sex, age, socioeconomic level and number of children of participants in the study.

The socioeconomic level of the participants, was obtained in the same way, from the data contained in the clinical file, homologating said information with the criteria established by the AMAI 8x7 Mexican Association of Market and Opinion Intelligence Agencies (AMAI, 2011), grouping them in 3 strata or socioeconomic levels, being the high level, strata a, b, c+; Average level the strata c, c-, d+ and the low level, the strata d and e.

For him analysis of data The statistical package was used SPSS For Windows version 20, the test of Pearson To search for correlation, since the sample had a normal distribution. To this end, the nominal information in numerical information was translated.

Results:

The 100 parents sample had a positive and leptocuric asymmetry curve, but the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of .169 demonstrated a normal distribution, for this reason the Pearson test was selected to search for a correlation, since the sample had a normal distribution.

It is observed that in the sample primary caregivers are mostly sex 97% female, compared to 3% male sex.

The age of caregivers Primary was between 24 and 58 years of age and the age of children with disabilities ranged between 3 years of age at 19 years of age.

The number of children From the sample it was between 1 to 6, being the families that have 1 only son 21% and those with more than 1 child 79%.

The socioeconomic level From the participants in the study it was between the average level 47% at a low level 53%, without any of the high level 0%.

The Stress levels presented in primary caregivers were: high 9%, medium 32%, under 59%.

As for the relationship between the level of parents of the parents and the level of dependence of the children with disabilities it is shown that there is no directly proportional relationship between them, on the contrary an inversely proportional relationship as shown in Figure 1.

Which indicates that The level of stress is greater in families who have a child with disabilities that require minimal assistance And secondly, families, in which their child is at a level of independence. The stress level was lower in families with a child that requires total assistance.

Figure 1. Association between the level of dependence of children with disabilities with their parents' stress level.

Correlations were made between the stress level of the parents and the intervening variables:

• Son with disabilities dependence level,
• sex,
• Parent age,
• Son with disabilities,
• socioeconomic level,
• number of children,
• place occupied by the son with disabilities,

In order to know if any of these factors had a direct influence with the parents' stress level.

The results obtained indicated that No statistically significant correlation was found, Among the stress level of parents and these variables, as indicated by Table 4.

Correlation between parents 'stress level with the level of dependence of the child with disabilities, sex, parents' age, the age of the child with disabilities, the socio -economic level, the number of children and the place that the child occupies with disability.

Conclusions

The study showed that having a child with disabilities effectively generates some degree of stress and, that the mother is usually the most trapped in the situation, being primary caregivers, mostly female (97%), as well as What was expressed by Núñez (2010).

Based on the results obtained in the study, it was demonstrated that the greatest degree of dependency for the basic activities of the daily life of a minor with disabilities does not have a directly proportional relationship with the level of stress of the parents, similar to what was found in Martínez's research, et al (2012), who correlated the degree of physical dependence with the perception of primary caregiver in a population of minors with cerebral palsy. On the contrary, it was found that the level of stress is inversely proportional, being greater in families who have a child with disabilities that require minimal and lower assistance in families with a child that requires total assistance.

For the present study, another type of disabilities was taken into account, adding other factors to clarify the possible cause of stress: sex of the primary caregiver, age of the primary caregiver, age of the child with disabilities, socioeconomic level, number of children and place of birth which occupies among his brothers the son with disabilities, in addition to the degree of dependency in the ABVD. Without finding significant correlations, which will relate any of these factors with a higher level of parents' stress.

Which means that parents' stress was not directly related to the level of dependency of the child with disabilities, or with the other variables: leading us to deny the work hypothesis: the greatest degree of dependence for the activities of daily life, of a minor with disabilities, increases the level of parents of the parents. And to affirm the null hypothesis: The highest degree of dependence For the activities of the daily life of a minor with disabilities, does not increase the stress level of parents. These findings allow to rethink the care needs of families that have a minor with disabilities, from a different view since it is usually considered that when the deficit is greater, the need for parental attention and wear is also (Núñez, 2010).

Now, it is important to continue or delve deeper into this type of studies that allow us to propose new hypotheses in order to identify the causes or motives that may be influencing the perception of stress of primary caregivers, such as that families who have a child in need of total assistance, perhaps they are found Resigned to the disability status of their child and families who have children who require minimal assistance or are independent, probably present a higher level of stress due to the expectations they could have regarding their development or lack of acceptance of the diagnosis in diagnosis in Yeah.

Anyway, as can be seen, These results open new lines of research, that allow responding to what are the characteristics or factors that intervene so that parents of children with disabilities, which require minimal assistance or are independent, present higher levels of stress. Similarly, know the factors involved so that parents of children with disabilities that require total assistance, have lower stress level, in relation to the first.

Based on the results, it can be inferred that the population sector of parents who have a child with disabilities, which requires minimal assistance or are independent, need, to a greater extent, psychological treatments that allow them to achieve an emotional balance that reduces The stress level.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Comparison of stress in parents and the level of dependency of the child with disabilities, We recommend that you enter our category of emotional and behavioral disorders.