Examining the relationship between parenting stress and marriage burnout of parents having children diagnosed with cerebral palsy

This research that is an exploratory correlational study aims to investigate the relationship between parenting stress and marriage burn-out of the parents having children diagnosed with cerebral palsy(CP). In the study, the other goal is to acknowledge and evaluate parents having children diagnosed with CP better by examining their parenting stress and marriage burn-out levels with regard to the demographic variables (parents' age, the age of children with cerebral palsy, education level, socio-economic status, marriage duration, number of children and the Gross Motor Function Classification System-GMFCS levels of children with CP). The population of the research consists of parents having children diagnosed with CP, which are supported by the Private Metin Sabancı and the Private Hıfzı Özcan Special Education and Rehabilitation Centers in Istanbul / Ataşehir; when the research sample consists of a total of 97 parents that selected from related special education and rehabilitations by convenient and criterion sampling methods. "Questionnaire on Resource and Stress-F (QRS-F)", "Parents Burnout Scale", and "Personal Information Form" were used as tools to collect the data. Pearson Correlational Analysis, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Independent Sample T-Test, Kruskal-Wallis H and Mann-Whitney U Test were conducted with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). When the scores obtained from related tools were analyzed, it was concluded that there was a significant positive correlation between marriage burn-out and parenting stress levels. In other words, as parenting stress levels increased, their marriage burn-out levels increased. In addition, as a result of the analyses, there were no significant differences among parenting stress and marriage burn-out levels with regard to the demographic variables like parents' age, the age of the children with CP, parents' education level, socio-economic status and marriage duration. While there were no significant differences among parenting stress levels, there was a statistically difference among their marriage burn-out levels according to number of children. Parents with one child had higher levels of marriage burn-out than parents with 2 or more children. Also, results have revealed that parenting stress and marriage burn-out levels did not have difference significantly according to GMFCS levels of children with CP. The findings were assessed related to the present studies and literature.