Comparison of Social Characteristics in Relative and non-Relative Parents with more than one Extraordinary Children

Countries’ traditions cause bio psychological harms for various reasons. The difference in the prevalence of anomalies in different countries results from the effect of environmental factors. Therefore, identifying the effective factors in creating disabilities and preventing them will help to stabilize the future generation and prevent socioeconomic damages. The present study aimed to identify and review the social characteristics of relative and non–native parents with more than one exceptional child to find strategies for the intervention, control, and prevention of disabilities. 

The present descriptive–analytic study applied a post–event method. The statistical population of this study consisted of all relative and non–relative parents with more than one exceptional child referring to the Welfare Organization in Mazandaran Province, Iran, in 2018. A sample of 150 families with more than one exceptional child (75 families with relative parents and 75 families with non–relative parents) were selected by convenience random sampling method and in two stages. The first stage was conducted based on the frequency of the statistical population in Mazandaran Province, Iran. In the second stage, the gender–wise ratio of individuals living in that city was randomly selected from the welfare database. The study inclusion criteria were the availability of at least one parent and the lack of a childchr('39')s disability due to accidents. The study exclusion criterion was providing incomplete questionnaires by the parents. In this research, the third part of the questionnaire was used to assess the biological, cognitive, and psychosocial aspects of the studied parents. The main structure of this questionnaire was first developed by Afrooz (2004) to examine the biological, cognitive, and psychosocial characteristics of parents of children with Down syndrome. Before conducting the research, the study purposes and procedures were explained to the subjects. Besides, we informed them that participating in the study was voluntary, their data would remain confidential, and they had the right to withdraw from the study whenever desired. Finally, they were informed that the research results would be available to them. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS and Chi–squared test (α=%5).

Of all the study samples, 64.7% (97 persons) of the fathers and 68.6% (103) of the mothers were illiterate or had primary education, and 10 % (15) of the fathers and 3.3% 5 of the mothers had university education. In addition, 25.5% (37) of the studied parents were relatives, 25.5% (37) were non–native parents, and 51% of the total sample were urban residents. Moreover, 59 (39.3%) subjects of the relative parents and 44 (29.3%) of the non–relative parents were owners of properties. In respect of history of substance use, smoking, and alcohol use by the father before the pregnancy, the majority of study subjects were 56 (37.3%) smokers and 54 (36%) non–smokers. The study results revealed the following data in the distribution of social variables of motherchr('39')s education, fatherchr('39')s education, motherchr('39')s job, place of residence, residence status; there was no significant difference in the history of paternal substance between the relative and non–relative parents. However, in fatherchr('39')s occupation variable (P=0.02), there was a significant difference between relatives and non–native parents.

Various social factors are involved in the emergence, occurrence, recurrence, and intensification of disabilities. Therefore, recognizing these features and developing preventive.