Comparison of Quality of Life, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Parental Stress among Mothers with Mentally Retarded Children and Peers

Having disabled children imposes mental stress on family members and especially mother, considering her main responsibility in raising children. The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of life, intolerance of uncertainty, and parenting stress among mothers with mentally retarded children and their peers. This study was of causal-comparative design. The statistical population included all mothers aged 25 to 35 who had children less than 12 years of age living in Bardaskan city, in Razavi Khorasan Province located in north-eastern Iran, in 2018. Two groups including 64 mothers with mentally retarded children and peers, who were mothers with normal children, were selected by convenience sampling. Data were collected using the World Health Organization's Quality of Life Questionnaire-Short Form, Intolerance of Uncertainty Questionnaire and Parenting Stress Questionnaire. Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance analysis using SPSS software version 16. The mean (SD) age was 32.6 (8.9) among mothers with mentally retarded children and 31.8 (7.6) among peers. The mean (SD) quality of life score among peers was 106.4 (10.7) which was higher than mothers with mentally retarded children with a mean (SD) of 84.9 (14.4) (P<0.001). The mean (SD) intolerance of uncertainty score among mothers with mentally retarded children was 73.6 (15.4) which was higher than peers with a mean (SD) of 56.5 (23.2) (P<0.001). The mean (SD) parental stress score among mothers with mentally retarded children was 111.61 (19.4) which was higher than peers with a mean (SD) of 65.3 (15.5) (P<0.001). The study showed that intolerance of uncertainty and stress of parenting among mothers with mentally retarded children was higher while their quality of life was lower than peers.