Abstract:

Cerebral palsy (CP) has a great impact on the affected person’s life, on the family’s life, on society and on public services. The care and upbringing of a child with CP may affect the functioning of parents and the entire family, as they often experience particularly stressful situations. Addressing stress situations is attributed to the term “coping”, which is defined as ongoing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage specific demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the individual. This study focuses on families raising a child with cerebral palsy aiming to investigate the stressful situations parents face mostly, and the ways of coping they adopt. Participants were 120 parents raising a biological child with cerebral palsy in Greece and Italy. Data collection used a self-report questionnaire and the Ways of Coping questionnaire. According to the findings, parents reported as most difficult parameters in their families, which worry and stress them, the inability to find leisure and personal space, the condition of the child with CP, the financial difficulties, and the anxiety and concern for the future. Regarding the ways of coping, the nonparametric deviation of the sample was statistically significantly higher compared to the theoretical median in all coping strategies: positive approach (with two dimensions: positive reappraisal and problem-solving), seeking social support, wishful thinking/dreaming (with two dimensions: wishful thinking and seeking divine help), escape/avoidance (resignation and refusal), planful problem-solving. At the same time, Mann-Whitney non-parametric control showed a significant differentiation between families in Greece and Italy in most ways of coping (except for the seeking divine help strategy). In all these cases, greater values were observed in Italian families. The main conclusion of the study was that although parents raising a child with CP experience exceptionally stressful situations, they adopt multiple ways of coping to manage and deal with them effectively.

Keywords:

Stressful situations, ways of coping, children with cerebral palsy, parents, Greece, Italy.