Abstract:

Researching and identifying the specifics of parental stress in parents of children with disabilities is an important prerequisite for increasing the positive impact of support to children with disabilities in inclusive education and preserving and enhancing their parents’ parental capacity. The present study is focused on measuring the GSR response to different visual stimuli (5 images of children in different situations) of 27 parents of children without disabilities and 27 parents of children with disabilities. The article also includes a comparison with self-reported arousal and valence of the emotions emerging from the images shown. The stimulus material represented different situations related to daily activities of children at different ages. The images showing independent actions, without the help of an adult (play, household activities, etc.) performed by children (in the age-matched norm) elicited significantly more spikes as measured by the GSR in parents of children with disabilities. That assumes significantly stronger activity of the autonomic nervous system. Significantly less excitability was observed in response to pictures associated with children expressing anger and negative emotions. These results provide direct support for the hypothesis that parents of children with disabilities have a distinctive and specific stress response to parenting situations, conditioned by the nature of the specifics of parenting children with disabilities. They experience more anxiety and stress in situations that require the child to cope alone, while at the same time demonstrating some sensitization and a weaker stress response in situations of unexpected and/or negative emotional reactions to the child himself.

Keywords:

Parental stress, children with disabilities, galvanic skin response.