Psychological well-being and coping behavior of parents raising children with disabilities

The problem of the study was to identify the features of psychological well-being and coping behavior of parents raising children with disabilities. The study involved 30 parents of primary school-age children with motor, auditory disorders, mental retardation, autism spectrum disorder (25 mothers and 5 fathers) and 30 parents of normally developing children (25 mothers, 5 fathers). The diagnostic tools included the questionnaire "Scale of psychological well-being" by K. Riff (adaptation of T.D. Shevelenkova, P. P. Fesenko), the questionnaire "Methods of coping behavior" by R. Lazarus, S. Folkman (adaptation by T. L. Kryukova, E. V. Kuftyak, M. S. Zamyshlyaeva). The Mann-Whitney U-test and Spearman correlation analysis were chosen as methods of statistical processing. It was revealed that parents of children with disabilities have significantly fewer close interpersonal relationships, it is more difficult for them to be caring, supportive in relationships. They rely less on their own opinion in their assessments and behavior, consider external circumstances rather than themselves control their lives. Parents raising children with disabilities in comparison with the parents of healthy children are dissatisfied with themselves, disappointed in life, there is no feeling of self-realization and self-development. Parents of children with disabilities have revealed a more complex system of correlations between coping strategies and components of psychological well-being, which may indicate a greater burden for coping strategies to maintain psychological well-being.