The examination of grief , marital adjustment and perception of social support of the parents of the children with pervasive developmental disorder

In many researches, its been indicated that the most of the parents have the feeling of guilt and responsible about the child born with a handicap or chronical disease. And it is also been indicated they often go through such as processes; deny, anxiety, anger, fear to adapt this this situation.It is important to examine and understand how the parents live that processes after the diagnosis of the child. Although some researchers dont agree, it is been indicated as these parents have lower marital adjustment and the higher percentage of divorcements. During these process coping strategies of these parents becomes more important and social support is the most common strategy for these families to adapt the situation.The aim of this study is to examine the factors effecting grief, marital adjustment and social support and relationship between grief, marital adjustment and social support of the parents of children with pervasive development disorder. Hogan Grief Reaction Checklist, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Dyadic Adjustment Scale and Personal Information Form which was developded by the researcher were used for this purpose. The sample of the study consists of 103 parents of the children between 3 and 18 years old with PDD. These children were diagnosed at Ege and Dokuz Eylul University Hospital.The results showed that the grief, marital adjustment and social support differentiated among the demographic variables . The variables that predict the grief of the parents of the children with PDD in a negative way are sexuality, education, duration of marriage, social support of significant other, social support of friends and dyadic cohension. The variables that predict the grief in positive way are sexuality, education, duration after diagnosis and dyadic satisfaction.