The investigation of problems experienced with parents having children with down syndrome in base of different variables

This study which was aimed to determine the problems and needs of parents who have children with Down Syndrome (DS) is a descriptive study. The research was conducted according to relational survey model. The sample was 318 parents. Family Needs Survey which was developed by Bailey and Simeonsson (1988) and adapted by Cavkaytar, Ardıç and Aksoy (2014) to Turkish was used for gathering the data. The scale has 29 items and four factors which are financial needs, needs for information, explaining to others and needs for support and community services. The Cronbach Alpha value ıf the scale is .90. Besides, it was interviewed face to face with 15 volunteer parents to provide more detailed information about parents' needs and to support quantitative data gathered by the scale. Since the data of the study show a normal distribution, One-way Variance Analysis (ANOVA) and t test for independent samples were used to determine whether there were significant differences between means of the dependent variable (parental needs) and independent variables (parents' educational status, monthly income of family, child's age, child's sex). However, it was used descriptive analysis for qualitative data. As a result of the research; it was found that parents have need for information, social support, explaining DS to other people, general support and social services and finance were determined. The family needs show significant differences according to parents' educational and socioeconomical status, child's gender and age. Moreover, it was found that family needs increased as the education level, income level and child's age decreased. It was concluded that the trainings aimed at raising awareness, knowledge and skills for parents having children with DS and all other deficiencies is vital. Key Words: Down syndrome, disabled person, family requirements, preschool education