Comparing Stress of Mothers of Pre-school Children with and without Intellectual Disabilities

The aim of this study was to compare stress of mothers of pre-school children with and without intellectual disabilities. This is a causal-comparative research. A sample of 116 mothers (58 Mothers of Pre-school children with intellectual disabilities and 58 mothers of Pre-school children without intellectual disabilities) were selected. Family inventory of life events was used for measuring stress level. Analysis of data using two-way analysis of variance test showed that the stress level of mothers of pre-school children with intellectual disabilities significantly are higher than the stress level of mothers of pre-school children without intellectual disabilities. Moreover, multiple analysis of variance revealed that in five subscales (intrafamily strains, marital strains, finance and business strains, illness and family care strains, losses, family legal violations) stress level of mothers of pre-school children with intellectual disabilities significantly are more than the stress level of mothers of preschool children without intellectual disabilities and in the three subscales (work-family transitions and strains, transition in and out, pregnancy and childbearing strains) there was no significant differences between mothers of pre-school children with and without intellectual disabilities. According to the finding of this research, it is recommended that educators of children with intellectual disability provide family education program especially in stress management area for parents of pre-school children with intellectual disability in order to help multidimensional development of these children and prevent detrimental consequences that threaten these children in school age and adulthood.