The Correlation between the Quality of Life of Mothers of Children with Special Needs and Their Demographic Characteristics in Tehran, Iran

The quality of life of mothers is of great importance, particularly in mothers of children with special needs. The current study aimed at determining the correlation between quality of life of mothers of children with special needs and their demographic characteristics in Tehran, Iran.
The present descriptive-correlational study was conducted on mothers of primary school children with special needs who studied at special schools in Tehran, in the academic year of 2013-2014. A total of 190 mothers were selected through stratified random sampling method. To collect data, a demographic questionnaire and the “quality of life scale for mothers of children with special needs” were used. The validity and reliability of the latter scale were measured in the previous study. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 21.
According to the results of the current study, mothers of children with special needs had low quality of life. All in all, the results indicated that the lowest and highest mean scores belonged to social relationships and religious-spiritual domain as 40.92 ± 18.86 and 81.4 ± 17.73, respectively.
According to the results of the current study, mothers of children with special needs have low quality of life. Professionals and health care providers should pay more attention to psychological well-being of mothers of children with special needs in order to improve their quality of life.