Personal Distress and Quality of life among Parents of Children with and without Neuro Developmental Disorder

Abstract

Parenting is an unconditional, energetic, affectionate and time consuming job like a person navigating the glob without having map. Parents feel, sense and share the happiness, fear and pain of their children. Having a child with special needs is not about what their parents gave up but it is associated to what they gained from having one. The aim of present study was to identify the effects of personal distress (PD) which is based on (depression, anxiety and stress) on quality of life (QOL) among parents of children with and without neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD). In the current study an attempt was made to identify relationship between PD and QOL along with the effect of children’s physical and psychological health on their parents. Data was collected in two settings first 30 parents (including 15 fathers and 15 mothers having children with NDD) from special children schools of Islamabad through purposive sampling technique and next 30 parents (encompassing 15 fathers and 15 mothers of children without NDD) were selected through systematic random sampling technique from locality of Islamabad. Data was analyzed through (SPSS V.21) using t test, chi square and correlation. The findings revealed difference on variables of PD and QOL among parents of children with and without NDD. Results indicated that the level of PD is high among mothers as compare to fathers. Moreover, it is also revealed that PD have negative relation with QOL among parents of children with and without NDD. Suggestions and recommendations for further researches has also been discussed.