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Research suggests that parents of children with disabilities are prone to higher stress and lower self-efficacy levels than parents of typical children.  The current study sought to investigate the relationship between parental stress and self-efficacy in parents of children with a disability in Ireland.  The independent variables (IV) in the study are the status of diagnosis of the child, confirmed disability or suspected disability and the dependent variables (DV) are parental stress levels and parental self-efficacy levels. Using the Parental Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC) (Johnson & Mash 1989) and the Parental Stress Scale (PSS) (Berry & Jones 1995), parental stress and self-efficacy levels were investigated to determine if there was an relationship between stress and self-efficacy in parents of children with a confirmed disability and parents of children with a suspected disability.  Participants were recruited from an online support group for parents of children with disabilities to complete a demographic questionnaire, the PSOC and PSS questionnaires.  The study received a total of 290 respondents of which 266 were parents to children with a confirmed disability and 24 were parents of children with a suspected disability.  Results reported that there was a significant negative correlation between parental stress and self-efficacy levels suggesting that parents who have high-stress levels have low self-efficacy in their parenting role.  The research went on to suggest that there was no significant difference in the stress and self-efficacy levels between parents of children who have a confirmed or suspected disability.

Acknowledgements

1           Literature Review

Research suggests that there is a strong correlation between stress and self-esteem (Galanakis, Palaiologou, Patsi, Velegraki & Darviri, 2016).

1.1    Introduction to parenting

Hassall, Rose and McDonald (2005) imply that there is a high level of stress associated with raising children, subsequently Coleman and Karraker (1998) suggest that most parents find the job of parenting to be an enjoyable experience whilst terrifying at times it is one of the most demanding roles in early adulthood that puts immense intellectual, emotional, and physical pressure on an individual.

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It is thought that there are some fundamentals to parenting such as endurance, tolerance, reliability, compassion, stability, and attention.  He goes on to suggest that these traits cannot always be attained as parents have many roles, duties and tasks that they must carry out on a daily basis.  With an ever-increasing number of parents working outside the home, dealing with household tasks and family obligations, as well as trying to find time to spend with their children, means there is little or no time for these fundamental parenting tasks (Small, 2010).

The relationship between parenthood and well-being is thought to be an extremely complicated one. Parenthood can be an unhappy time for some and as research suggests, the level of this unhappiness can be brought on by high levels of negativity and increased financial difficulties. In contrast with the complications of parenthood, it is suggested that parents who experience greater meaning in life, satisfaction of their basic needs, greater positive emotions, and enhanced social roles, they are met with happiness and joy (Nelson & Kushlev, 2014).

1.2    Disabilities

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declares that the term of disabilities is an umbrella type term which covers “impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions”. They go on to suggest that a “disability is not just a health problem. It is a complex phenomenon, reflecting the interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives” (WHO, 2017).

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A disability can be the result of a neuro developmental disability such as Autism, Dyspraxia or Downs Syndrome, it could be due to a physical disability such as Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy or Epilepsy, a behavioural disability such as ADD, ADHA, or a sensory impairment such as being visually impaired, deaf or blind (Boyle et al., 2011; Schalock, Luckasson & Shogren, 2007).  Recent figures published by The Central Statistics Office (CSO) report that there are now over seventy thousand children under the age of 19 with disabilities in Ireland today (CSO, 2016).

1.3    Stress

Selye (1974) implies that “stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand”, he goes on to add that we cannot just avoid stress and although there is just one type of stress, the effects of a “stressor” can be different depending on an individual.  Furthermore, he implies that the effect of a stressor on an individual is see when that individual produces a non-specific stress response.  Lazarus (1990) goes on to suggest that stress is a normal part of human life and it can be defined as the exhaustion of one’s human resources by the external demands placed upon them.

Boyce, Behl, Mortensen and Akers (2017) report that parents of a child with disabilities have more stress than their counterparts.  Furthermore, they also suggest that past investigations of parent stress have been limited by considering too few sources of stress.

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Research by Weiss (2002) went on to evaluate stress levels in mothers of a typical child in contrast with a child with a disability. Notwithstanding, the results indicated that mothers of children with disabilities experienced higher levels of depressive symptoms, anxiety and somatic conditions than mothers of typical children, hence, Weiss also implies that parents who reported high levels of personal satisfaction in their parenting ability reported low levels of depression.

1.4    Self-efficacy

According to Bandura (1977), self-efficacy can be defined as an individual’s perceived ability to achieve a task or meet a certain goal.  Furthermore, Bandura suggests that the held perception an individual has, directly influences their performance in succeeding in any given task.  In his Social Cognitive theoretical framework of self-efficacy, Bandura implies that there are psychological factors present such as environmental, personal, and behavioural factors which alter the level and strength of one’s self-efficacy.  He goes on to suggest that our expectations of self-efficacy are taken from four sources, performance, persuasion, social observation, and emotions.  The main concept that lies behind the social cognitive psychology is that processes such as self-reflection, are not unconscious and individuals act based on their thoughts and beliefs.

Further research by Johnston and Mash (1989) suggests that not only parental perceptions but also the behaviour of the child brings about a negative relationship between self-efficacy and parental satisfaction in the role of being a parent.

High parenting self-efficacy is argued to be strongly correlated with the parent’s ability to provide a, motivating, loving and stimulating home life.  In contrast, low levels of parenting self-efficacy have been correlated with parental depression (Coleman & Karraker, 2000).

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1.5    Stress and parenting of a child with disabilities

Barnett, Clements, Kaplan-Estrin and Fialka (2003) imply that parents of children with developmental disabilities are at risk for high levels of distress, furthermore, they argue that the parents of a child with a development disability can have feelings of segregation and stress that lead to depression.

There are a lot of impacts on the family structure when raising children with disabilities.  The family and child can become marginalised from society in many ways (Edelson, 2008).  Social exclusion, prejudice and discrimination can be isolating, not just to the child but also the family unit (Hinshaw, 2005). Furthermore, there is extensive research to suggest that being a caregiver for a child with a disability can impact on the mental health of an individual (Ferro &, Speechley 2009; Glenn, Cunningham, Poole, Reeves & Weindling, 2009; Singer 2006), hence, Panditaratne and Donnelly (2017) go on to suggest that parents of children with a disability report lower parental  self-efficacy than parents of typical children.  Subsequently, this lends support to the fact that primary caregivers of children with disabilities are at considerable risk of stress, depression, and low personal quality of life (Cummins, 2001).  He goes on to add that due to the intense level of care needed, the task of looking after a child with a disability can be more stressful than caring for a normal child and he argues that parents of children with disabilities suffer less well-being than parents of typical children.  In his review “The subjective well-being of people caring for a family member…”, Cummins evaluated the impact of care on a patient and the impact it has on the stress levels of the family.  He evaluated qualitative and quantitative data that highlights how the quality life felt by families is low.  He also suggests that the degree of and the type of disability that is being cared for is a major contributing factor to the stress felt by the families.  Subsequently, however, he adds a cautionary note to his review by arguing that there is a shortcoming in the data he studies, noting that the literature on family wellbeing is too vast for any review to be inclusive.

It is not easy to be a parent to a child with a disability.  Whilst it is acknowledged there are happy times, a parent can face a lot of challenges which may have negative effects on their wellbeing.  Furthermore, she goes on to argue that the job of a parent quite often for an individual means that they are worrying themselves sick, fighting for necessary services for the child, sacrificing their personal career, succumbing to high levels of debt to pay for services, and finally, the anger at the injustice of it all.  In addition, she points out that before the child had a diagnosis, the stress felt by parents was associated with their perceptions of their child’s development and stress was mostly related to social support (Anderson, 2010).

The experiences of parenting a child with a disability can be different depending on the specific need of the child, however, there are commonalities between the stressors experienced by parents of children with different challenges.  This seems to indicate that parental stress levels in children with disabilities is determined by the overall nature of the disability (Gupta, 2007).  Furthermore, Hayes and Watson, (2012) go on to add that there is a higher level of parental stress felt by parents of children with autism spectrum disorder than parents of typically children or those diagnosed with other disabilities such as Down syndrome cerebral palsy or an intellectual disability.

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1.6    Self-efficacy and parenting of a child with disabilities

The experiences of parenting a child with a disability can be different depending on the specific need of the child, however, there are commonalities between the stressors experienced by parents of children with different challenges.  This seems to indicate that parental stress levels in children with disabilities is determined by the overall nature of the disability (Gupta, 2007).  Furthermore, Hayes and Watson, (2012) go on to add that there is a higher level of parental stress felt by parents of children with autism spectrum disorder than parents of typically children or those diagnosed with other disabilities such as Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy or a learning and intellectual disability.

1.7    Self-efficacy and parenting of a child with disabilities

Bandura (1993) suggests that one’s parental self-efficacy (PSE) beliefs represent the measure of which parents comprehend themselves as capable of performing the tasks associated with this challenging role.  Hence, he goes on to suggest that PSE is a vital element and is often linked with a parent’s competence in performing their parenting tasks.  This supports further research which suggests that heightened levels of parental self-efficacy are correlated with a higher quality of parent to child interaction and enhanced warmth in the relationship (Coleman & Karraker 1998).

Panditaratne and Donnelly (2017) imply in a recent research report that accessing services can be challenging for parents and consequently this causes low self-efficacy in parents which may explain the increased risk for depression.  They go on to argue that these low levels of self-efficacy are positively correlated with greater mood disorders. Things that become stressors in the life of a parent of a child with a disability may not become a stressor to a parent of a typical child.

In contrast, Jones and Prinz (2005) imply that high self-efficacy in parents has a positive outcome on the child relationship which can lead to the child taking on these positive outlooks as social norms and apply them to their own existence.

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1.8    The Present Study: research aims

The aim of the current study therefore was to address the following research questions:

1. Is there a significant relationship between parental stress and self-efficacy in parents of children with a disability?
2. Is there a significant difference in scores on a measure of parental stress between parents of children with a confirmed disability, and parents of children with a suspected disability?
3. Is there a significant difference in scores on a measure of self-efficacy between parents of children with a confirmed disability and parents of children with a suspected disability?

2           Methodology

2.1    Design

A between groups cross-sectional correlational design was used to examine levels of parental stress and self-efficacy in parents of children with a confirmed disability and parents of children with a suspected disability.  The independent variables (IV) in the study are the status of diagnosis of the child, confirmed disability or suspected disability and the dependent variables (DV) are parental stress and parental self-efficacy.

2.2    Participants

For inclusion in the study, participants must be parents of children who are 1) children with a confirmed disability and or 2) children with a suspected disability who are waiting on an assessment of need (AON) for diagnosis.  Two hundred and ninety-five participants responded. Four were excluded for not having a child with a disability and one was excluded for non-responses, leaving a total of 290 participants.  This was made up of 285 (98.28%) females and 5 males (1.72%).  As is illustrated in Table 2‑1 below, 266 (91%) participants had a child with a confirmed disability, this was made up of  262 females (90%) and 4 males (1%). 24 (8%) had a child with a suspected disability made up of 23 females (7.7%) and 1 male (0.3%).

Table 2‑1 Gender and age of parents of children with a confirmed and suspected disability.