Development of a structural model of psychological well-being of mothers with children with intellectual disabilities based on the core of self-evaluation with the mediation of inferiority feeling

The birth of a child with intellectual disability can bring difficult conditions for parents and other family members. Because parents are unexpectedly caught in a difficult emotional puzzle, they endure more discomfort and worry due to the unexpected nature of this problem and their inherent desire to take care of their children. As a result, it becomes more difficult for them to function in adverse conditions and they cannot manage their emotions well in these conditions. Also, these mothers suffer more tensions due to lack of high psychological well-being.

The aim of the current research was to develop a structural model of psychological well-being of mothers with children with intellectual disabilities based on the core of self-evaluation with the mediation of Inferiority feeling.

The present research method was descriptive and correlation and structural equations type. The statistical population of this research is all parents of children with intellectual disabilities who were covered by the welfare organization in Tehran in 1402-1401 and receive services from the welfare organization. The sample size in the present study was considered to be 300 people from Tehran. The sampling method used was also availability. Scales of Psychological Well-being (1989), self-evaluation core (Judge et al., 2003) and Comparative Feeling of Inferiority Index (Dixon & Strano, 1990) were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation tests using SPSS version 25 and structural equation modeling using Lisrel version 8.

The results of the research showed that the coefficient of the total path (the sum of the coefficients of direct and indirect paths) between the core of self-evaluation and psychological well-being was significant (p=0.001, β=0.481). Based on this, it can be said that there is a relationship between the psychological well-being of mothers with a child with intellectual disability based on the core of self-evaluation with the mediation of the Comparative Inferiority.

It seems That according to the results that parents of children with intellectual disabilities experience higher stress compared to parents of normal children, it is better to carry out more extensive research with more samples in these families.