The Attitude of Mothers of Children with Intellectual Disability

Decreased rates of emotion regulation might be observed in children and adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) and their mothers. It is important to plan appropriate training programs for improving mothers’ attitudes toward children and adolescents with ID. Parenting training programs could improve the mothers’ attitudes toward children and adolescents with ID. This is because children and adolescents with ID encounter numerous challenges in emotional reactions. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of the parenting training program on the attitude of the mothers of children with ID.

This was a quasi–experimental study with a pretest–posttest, and, a control group design. The study samples were 34 mothers of children with ID who aged 6–8 years. The sampling was conducted in the 2018–2019 academic year, in Tehran City, Iran. The study subjects were selected by random sampling method and were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Each group consisted of 17 individuals. The study participants were from the middle socioeconomic class. The experimental group participated in a 12–session parenting training program (two 60–min weekly sessions). However, the control group received no intervention and remained on the waiting list. The applied instrument in this research was the Parenting Attitudes Questionnaire (PAQ) (Shoben, 1949). The PAQ was completed by the mothers of children with ID in pretest and posttest phases. Therefore, the required data were collected through the questionnaire before and after providing the training sessions. Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) was used in SPSS to analyze the obtained data (p<0.05). 

Initially, the normality of the study variables and the contingency of variance and covariance assumptions were tested. The Kolmogorov Smirnov test data suggested that all variables were normally distributed. Moreover, Box test results confirmed the contingency of variance–covariance assumption. Accordingly, the MANCOVA assumptions were established, and MANCOVA could be used for data analysis. The MANCOVA results revealed a significant difference in the posttest scores of the experimental and control groups concerning the mothers’ attitudes toward their children with ID (p<0.001). The MANCOVA results also indicated that the parenting training program had a significant and positive effect on the investigated mothers’ attitudes toward their children with ID. The Parenting training program improved the studied mothers’ attitudes toward their children with ID. Furthermore, the obtained data revealed that the parenting training program significantly impacted all subscales of mothers’ attitudes (domineer, sever dependency, & indifference) toward their children with ID (p<0.001). According to Eta squared, 59%, 61%, and 65% of variations in components, such as domineer, sever dependency, and indifference, respectively, could be explained by the participation of the mothers of children with ID in the parenting training program. 

The parenting training program improved the attitude and its subscales (domineer, sever dependency, & indifference) in the mothers of children with ID. This could be because the parenting program is related to subjective well–being and an individual’s affective experiences, which influences individuals’ attitudes. As a result, training this program could crucially affect the attitude of the mothers of children with ID.