Hastings R P
School of Psychology, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK.
J Intellect Disabil Res. 2003 May-Jun;47(Pt 4-5):231-7. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2788.2003.00485.x.
Previous research has suggested that the mothers and fathers of children with disabilities experience stress differently. Although there has been a great deal of research exploring how children affect parents, there have been many fewer studies of the interrelationships between mothers' and fathers' psychological well-being.
Eighteen married couples who were the parents of children with autism reported on their stress and their general mental health (i.e. anxiety and depression). Teachers rated the behaviour problems of the children with autism.
Mothers and fathers did not differ in their levels of stress and depression, but mothers reported more anxiety than fathers. Partial correlation analyses revealed that child behaviour problems and fathers' mental health were associated with mothers' stress. However, neither child behaviour problems or mothers' mental health was associated with fathers' stress.
Although requiring replication, the results suggest that stress in mothers of children with disabilities may be affected by the psychological health of other family members, whereas fathers' stress is affected more by other factors. Methodological and conceptual issues, and the practical implications of these results are discussed.
先前的研究表明，残疾儿童的父母所经历的压力有所不同。尽管已有大量研究探讨孩子如何影响父母，但关于父母心理健康之间相互关系的研究却少得多。
18对育有自闭症孩子的已婚夫妇报告了他们的压力状况和总体心理健康状况（即焦虑和抑郁）。教师对自闭症孩子的行为问题进行了评分。
父母在压力和抑郁水平上没有差异，但母亲报告的焦虑比父亲更多。偏相关分析显示，孩子的行为问题和父亲的心理健康与母亲的压力有关。然而，孩子的行为问题或母亲的心理健康与父亲的压力均无关联。
尽管需要重复验证，但结果表明，残疾儿童母亲的压力可能受其他家庭成员心理健康的影响，而父亲的压力更多地受其他因素影响。本文讨论了方法学和概念性问题以及这些结果在实际中的意义。
