Investigation of perceived stress levels and eating behaviors of mothers with special needs children

Stress is a concept that affects women with special needs children throughout their lives, as it is with many people. Feelings such as anxiety, loneliness, and parental stress may develop in mothers responsible for the care of their children. The aim of this study is to examine the perceived stress levels and eating behaviors of mothers with children with special needs and to evaluate their relationship with each other. The sample of the study consists of 169 mothers with physically disabled (89) and mentally retarded (80) children who receive service from a special education and rehabilitation center in Üsküdar. In this study, information was obtained through face-to-face interviews with questionnaire forms such as Sociodemographic Information Form, Perceived Stress Scale (ASÖ), Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ). Anthropometric measurements such as body weight, height, BMI and waist circumference were measured by the researcher. The individual characteristics of the mothers, the type of disability of their children with special needs, stress, eating behaviors and their effects on each other were also examined in the study. In the study, the mean score of perceived stress level of mothers with children with mental retardation (21,76±6,46) was found to be significantly higher than the stress level of mothers with children with physical disabilities (19,43±6.85) (p<0,05). 36,7% of the participants are satisfied with their body weight. Emotional eating behavior mean scores of those who were satisfied with their body weight (19,92±7,66) were significantly lower than those who were dissatisfied (28,04±15,03) or undecided (25,54±14,46) (p<0,01). In the study, the relationship levels between PSS and DEBQ scores were examined. There was no significant relationship between restrictive eating behavior and external eating behavior and perceived stress (p>0,05). A positive relationship was found between perceived stress and emotional eating behavior levels (p<0,01). Additionally, by simple regression analysis, the effect of perceived stress scores on emotional eating behaviors was found to be significant (p<0.01). As a result, this thesis study supports that the perceived stress and emotional eating behaviors of mothers with special needs children are related to each other.