Parents’ resolution of the diagnosis and psychological health: a comparison across Down syndrome and epilepsy

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Parents who receive a diagnosis of a developmental disorder or illness of their child experience stress and intense emotional reactions. Findings from multiple medical and neurodevelopmental conditions, shows in a consistent way that parents of sick children compared with control one, report increased anxiety, depression and stress (Coppola et al., 2007; Lai et al., 1997; Oppenheim et al., 2007; Tak et al., 2002; Tzoufi et al., 2005). Marvin and Pianta (1996) suggest that parents are required to resolve the negative emotions related to the diagnosis in order to meet the child’s real needs, by updating ones’ mental representation from the expected healthy child to one with special needs.
Still, little is known about the differential impact of diverse child conditions, and it is unclear which features of the child’s illness are most stressing for parents. The study focuses on comparing parents of children with Down syndrome vs. epilepsy: albeit different, both are life-persistent conditions interfering with parents’ psychological wellbeing (e.g., Operto et al., 2019; Rani & Thomas, 2019; Yildirim & Yildirim, 2010; Most et al., 2006). Nevertheless, no study has investigated these parents’ resolution and most studies have focused on mothers, neglecting fathers. Given these gaps, the study aims at investigating parents’ resolution and psychological health as a function of the child’s clinical condition and parental role. The sample involved 82 parents (61% mothers), 41 of children with Down syndrome (Mage=7.41, SD=5.38, range=8-18) and 41 of children with epilepsy (Mage=20.22, SD=2.95, range=13-25). Parents were administered the Reaction to Diagnosis Interview, the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1995) and the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90; Derogatis & Unger, 2010). Since preliminary analyses showed no significant association between resolution and parental role, X2 =2.58 and 2.73, n.s. respectively, mother and fathers were treated as a whole group. The crosstab child’s condition X resolution showed a higher frequency of resolved parents among the Down syndrome parents (70%) compared to the epilepsy ones (44.4%), X2 =5.08, p<.05. A set of ANOVAs or ANCOVA (controlling for child’s age and parental education when significantly associated with the DVs) showed that parents of epileptic children reported more parental stress, compared to the Down syndrome ones, F=4.90, p<.05. Moreover, independently from the child’s condition, mothers reported more parenting stress, somatic complaints, anxiety, depression and social anxiety, compared to fathers (4.34 Overall, these findings highlight which features of child’s conditions might have the most negative impact on parents, such as feelings of unpredictability and powerless, which typically characterize epileptic and drug-resistant crisis. On the other side, although Down syndrome is characterized by many medical complications and intellectual disability, parents might be more able to accommodate to such condition, thanks’ to the so-called Down’s upside (Skotko et al., 2016). Also, our findings highlight that mother more than fathers should be targeted for psychological support, as they might be more invested than fathers in child caregiving, as previous findings show in same cultural group (Cassibba et al. 2016).

Authors

• Alessandro Costantini, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro
  Presenting Author

• Gabrielle Coppola, University of Bari Aldo Moro
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rosalinda Cassibba, University of Bari - Italy
  Non-Presenting Author