Assessment of parents’ ways of coping with critical situations

• Authors: Ślifirczyk, A , Krajewska-Kułak, E , Brayer, A , Sobolewski, M , Maciorkowska, E

Abstracts

EN

Introduction: Stress experienced by parents of a disabled child can have a negative impact on family relationships. Purpose: Assessment of parents coping with critical situations. Materials and methods: We analyzed 83 families, including 30 families from Poland, 25 families from Belarus and 28 families from France and we used Coping Inventory for Stress Situations (CISS) and The General Self- Efficacy Scale (GSES). Results: After hearing the diagnosis most often parents felt shock (63.3% from Poland, 68% from Belarus and France 85.7%). Main parents' emotions induced by the disability was fatigue (76.7% from Poland, 44% from Belarus and 71.4% from France - p=0.028) and sadness (73.3% from Poland, 40% from Belarus and 28.6% from France - p=0.002). Most often in response to the annoying and stressful child’s behaviour parents tried to admonish (76.7% from Poland, 56% from Belarus and 75% from France) or shout at the child (66.7% from Poland, 24% from Belarus and 17.9% from France p <0.001). The least likely preferred style of coping with stress in all countries was the search for socializing. The highest rate of self-efficiency characterize parents from France, the lowest from Poland. Conclusions: The existence of factors which could significantly affect the level of burn-out syndrome in parents, such as the deterioration of the financial situation (mainly in Belarusian families), sadness, fatigue, insomnia (mainly in Polish families). Parents chose effective strategies of coping, and the predominant style was focused on the task. It has been shown that parents lack the ability to control negative emotions, which in particular affected Polish families (for example, domination of trials to admonish and explain, shouting at the child).

Keywords

EN

Autism; parents; Coping Inventory for Stress Situations; The General Self- Efficacy Scale

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Medyczny w Białymstoku
• Journal: Progress in Health Sciences
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 6(1)
• Pages: 116-122

Contributors

author

Ślifirczyk, A

author

Krajewska-Kułak, E

author

Brayer, A

author

Sobolewski, M

author

Maciorkowska, E

Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/01.3001.0010.1919