Effect of parent's educational level on social skills and behavior problems of students with Down syndrome

The present study investigates the effect of parental education level on social skills and behavior problems of students with Down syndrome. This post causal study was conducted at special schools of Tehran and the subjects were 129 students in range of 7 to 12 year with Down syndrome and their parents in 2006-8, that chosen from specials schools of north, south, west, east and center of Tehran by multiphase random cluster sampling method and questionnaires were given to their parents. For data analysis one way analysis of variance was used. The results of this research showed that there is a significant difference between maternal education level and the social skills of students with Down syndrome (P<0.001). On the contrary, there is no significant difference between paternal education level and social skills of mentioned students (P=0.06). Furthermore, no significant difference was observed between parental education level and students’ behavior problems (mothers: P=0.52 and fathers: P= 0.46). It is concluded that there is a direct and positive relation between maternal education level and social skills of students with Down syndrome.