The investigation of coping strategies and life satisfaction levels of parents with mentally retarded children

In this study, the parents who have mentally retarded children are reviewed in order to their differentiation between satisfaction trough life, coping with stress, according to variables like age, gender, the level of handicappe of the child, and the age, the educational level of the parents.The research?s sample is composed by 86 mentally retarded childrens? parents whose children are between the ages 7 to 12 and are educated in special education and rehabilitation in İzmir. The personal information form, the scale called ?Life Satisfaction Scale? developed by Deiner, Emmans, Lorsen ,Giffin (1985) and adapted to Turkish by Aysan (2001), the scale called ?Coping Strategies Scale? developed by Amirkhan (1990) and adapted to Turkish by Aysan (1994) were applied to the parents included in the sample. The T-Test and one-way ANOWA analyses were used in the evaluation of the datas.The findings that we had from data analysis are summarized below.It is found that the mothers? search for social support scores are significantly different from the scores of the fathers? search for social support when mothers who have mental retarded children compared according to the coping strategies and the life satisfaction with the fathers who have mental retarded childrenThere are significant differences in problem solving subset of coping strategies? when 4 groups of fathers were compared according to their childrens? level of handicape. There are significant differences in problem solving subset of coping strategies? when 4 groups of mothers were compared according to their childrens? level of handicape.There are significant differences in problem solving and avoidance scores as subset of coping strategies and in life satisfaction scores when the fathers were grouped according to their educational levels. Through the educational levels of the mothers, also significant differences were found in life satisfaction scores.The mothers of mentally retarded children were seperated according to the ages of their children, a significant difference was noticed depending on their life satisfaction scores. Fathers of mentally retarded children were found to have significant differences in avoidance subset and life satisfaction according to their age groups.There is a significant and negative directional relationship between the parents? seek for social support strategy and life satisfaction levels. There is also a significant and negative directional relationship between the mental retarded childrens? parents? in life satisfaction levels and in using the avoidance strategy. When the life satisfaction of the fathers were compared to seeking the social support strategies, there is a significant and negative directional relationship. There is a significant difference between the mothers? life satisfaction and avoidance strategies and this relationship is in negative direction. Mothers? life satisfaction and seek for social support strategies have significant and negative directional relationship between eachother.When we look at the relationship between the life satisfaction and the educational levels of the fathers, a significant relationship is found and this relationship is in positive direction. And when we look at the relationship between the life satisfaction and the educational levels of the mothers, a significant relationship is found and this relationship is in positive direction. There is a negative directional and significant relationship between the mothers? life satisfaction and the retardation level of the child. When the problem solving strategy as the subset of coping strategies and the educational levels of the mothers were inspected, there is a significant and negative directional relationship between them.Between the childrens? age and mothers problem solving strategies, there is a significant and negative directional relationship. There is a significant relationship between fathers? problem solving and childrens?retardation level and this relationship is in negative direction. When the relationship between the avoidance strategies and the educational levels of the fathers are reviewed, there is a significant and negative directional relationship.