Comparing Mental Strength, Cognitive Flexibility, and Mental Health in the Mothers of Exceptional Children with High and Low Parental Stress

Exceptional children create about 2% of the population; thus, numerous families encounter its related stress, such as severe marital conflicts, psychological consequences, e.g., fear of pregnancy, guilt over the child's birth, and higher educational and medical costs. Mothers usually suffer further psychological pressures than other family members. They face a high level of anger, stress, depression, shame, or blame. Domestic evidence about comparing these variables together is scarce. Recognizing these variables helps improve marital satisfaction in couples. This study aimed to determine the factors associated with marital satisfaction and mental health.

The statistical population of this causal–comparative study included all mothers with exceptional children in Ahvaz City, Iran, in 2018. In total, 200 individuals were selected using the convenience sampling method. After removing the incomplete and distorted questionnaires, the remaining 180 questionnaires were analyzed. The sample subjects were divided into two groups with high and low parenting stress based on the score obtained in the parental stress index. Accordingly, after calculating the mean parental stress in the subjects, individuals who scored more than one standard deviation above the mean and less than one standard deviation were lower than the mean were considered as high (n=90) and low (n=90) parenting stress groups, respectively. Mental Strength Questionnaire (Clough, Earle & Sewell,2002), Parental Stress Index (Abidin,1990), Symptom Check List 25–Revised (Derogatis, Lipman and Covi,1977), and Cognitive Flexibility Questionnaire (Dennis & Vander Wal,2010) were used to collect the necessary data. The obtained data were analyzed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) in SPSS.

The obtained results indicated a significant difference between the study groups respecting psychological strength (p<0.01), cognitive flexibility (p<0.01), and mental health (p<0.01).

Mothers with low parental stress present higher psychological strength, cognitive flexibility, and mental health than their counterparts with high parental stress. Therefore, to improve the quality of parenting in the mothers of exceptional children, relevant specialists can use these psychological components to improve families' situations, such as life quality, parenting, and so on.