Investigation of care burden and psychological resilience levels of mothers who have 0-2 years old children with chronic disease

The research was carried out to determine the care burden and psychological resilience levels of mothers with children between 0-2 years of age and to examine the relationship between them. The sample of this descriptive study consisted of the mothers of 134 children who were hospitalized in Hacettepe University Children's Hospital Baby Service due to chronic disease between April 2021 and August 2021. Purposive sampling method was used in this research. In order to collect data, Personal Information Form, Burden Interview and Brief Psychological Resilience Scale were used. In the evaluation of the data, the following tests were used: Mean, standard deviation, median, Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test, Shapiro-Wilks Test, Spearman's Rho Coefficient, T Test, Mann-Whitney U Test, Levene Test, Kruskal-Wallis H Test, Dunn Test and Chi-Square Test. According to the research findings, the mean of Burden Interview score was 43.78±13.62 and the mean of Brief Psychological Resilience Scale score was 14.91±5.51. It was determined that university graduate mothers who participated in the study had a higher level of care burden than mothers with other educational backgrounds (p=0.013), the mothers who were employed had higher level of care burden than those who did not work (p=0.001), and the mothers who care for children with epilepsy and neurological diseases had also higher level of care burden than those who care for children without them (p<0.001). It was observed that those who received financial and moral support from their environment for care had higher Brief Psychological Resilience Scale scores than those who did not (p=0.019; p=0.021). A significant inverse relationship was found between Burden Interview score and Brief Psychological Resilience Scale score (p<0.001). As a result, it has been determined that the care burden of mothers who have 0-2 years old children with chronic diseases is at an advanced level. The fact that mothers with high levels of resilience had a lower burden of caregiving indicates that resilience is an associated with the burden of care. For this reason, it is recommended to be planned health services in order to increase the level of psychological resilience of mothers who have children with chronic diseases and to reduce the burden of care.