Visual Impairment in Children: Comparison of Marital Satisfaction, Parental Alliance and Parental Burnout in Iranian Fathers and Mothers

The aim of this study was to compare marital satisfaction, parental alliance, and parental burnout in fathers and mothers having a child(ren) with and without visual impairment. The method of the study was descriptive and expo facto. The study population consisted of four groups of parents having children without and with visual impairment (parents having one child, two children, and more than two children with VI) living in different cities of Iran. Among them, a sample of 506 people (including 297 mothers and 209 fathers) participated voluntarily in the study through convenient sampling. The measurements included the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (Nichols et al., 1983), the Parental Alliance Scale (Abidin, & Brunner, 1995), and the Parental Burnout Assessment (Roskam et al., 2018). The results showed that parents having more than two children with VI had higher scores on parental burnout and lower scores on marital satisfaction and parental alliance compared to the other three groups (p < .001). The results of the MANOVA test showed that the four groups were significantly different in all dimensions of parental burnout (p < .001), also, the fathers obtained higher scores in marital satisfaction (p < .04). The extent of visual impairment of the child(ren) can disrupt the relationship between children and parents with themselves and with each other by negatively affecting marital and parental outcomes.