Comparsion of Alexithymia, Self-Compassion and Humor Styles between Parents of Children with Mental Retardation and Normal Children

The purpose of this study was to Compare of Alexithymia, Self-Compassion and Humor Styles between Parents of Children with Mental Retardation and Normal Children. The research method is then causal-comparative. The research method was causal-comparative. The statistical population includes all parents of mentally retarded children (N = 160) and parents of normal children in Saqqez city, who were selected from among 80 parents of mentally retarded children with available method and 80 parents of normal children had the means to multistage cluster sampling method. The research instruments included emotional deficiency scales, self-compassion inventory and Humor Styles questionnaire. The analysis method is multivariate analysis of variance. The results showed that there were significant differences between the parents of mentally retarded children and parents of normal children in terms of alexithymia, self-compassion and styles of humor (P≤0/01). Parents of mentally retarded children had more problems with emotional failure and self-compassion because of their child's problem and used aggressive and self-destructive humor styles toward healthy parents. Therefore, parents of mentally retarded children need more attention and support in the education and training of children.