Giallo R, Seymour M, Matthews J, Gavidia-Payne S, Hudson A, Cameron C
Parenting Research Centre, East Melbourne, Vic., Australia; RMIT University, Bundoora, Vic., Australia; Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Vic., Australia.
J Intellect Disabil Res. 2015 Mar;59(3):193-207. doi: 10.1111/jir.12127. Epub 2014 Mar 20.
Raising a child with a disability places considerable demands and stress on parents, which can contribute to mental health difficulties. Research has primarily focused on mothers' mental health, and our understanding of the effects on fathers remains limited. The factors that place fathers at increased risk of mental health difficulties are also poorly understood. This study aimed to redress these gaps by reporting on the mental health of a large sample of fathers of children with an intellectual disability (ID) (aged 3-15 years), comparing this to published Australian norms and mothers of children with ID. The second aim of the study was to explore risk factors associated with fathers' mental health.
The data for this study come from 315 Australian fathers of children (aged 3-15 years) with ID, who participated in the large-scale evaluation of the Signposts for building better behaviour programme. Fathers completed a range of self-report questionnaires at baseline including the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS).
Fathers in the present sample reported significantly more symptoms of depression and stress than the Australian normative data, with approximately 6-8% reporting symptoms in the severe to extremely severe range. The strongest predictors of fathers' mental health difficulties were children's behaviour problems, daily stress arising from fathers' own needs and children's care needs, and low parenting satisfaction. Socio-economic factors did not predict mental health difficulties.
This study is among one of the first to report the mental health of fathers of children with a disability in Australia. Findings highlight that some fathers of children with ID are at heightened risk of experiencing mental health difficulties, underscoring the importance of the provision of information and interventions to promote their mental health.
抚养残疾儿童会给父母带来巨大的需求和压力，这可能导致心理健康问题。研究主要集中在母亲的心理健康方面，而我们对其对父亲的影响的了解仍然有限。对使父亲面临心理健康问题风险增加的因素也知之甚少。本研究旨在通过报告大量智力残疾（ID）儿童（3至15岁）的父亲的心理健康状况，将其与已发表的澳大利亚标准以及ID儿童的母亲进行比较，来弥补这些差距。该研究的第二个目的是探索与父亲心理健康相关的风险因素。
本研究的数据来自315名澳大利亚ID儿童（3至15岁）的父亲，他们参与了“培养更好行为的路标”计划的大规模评估。父亲们在基线时完成了一系列自我报告问卷，包括抑郁焦虑压力量表（DASS）。
本样本中的父亲报告的抑郁和压力症状明显多于澳大利亚的标准数据，约6 - 8%的人报告症状处于严重至极严重范围。父亲心理健康问题的最强预测因素是儿童的行为问题、父亲自身需求和儿童护理需求产生的日常压力以及低育儿满意度。社会经济因素并不能预测心理健康问题。
本研究是澳大利亚首批报告残疾儿童父亲心理健康状况的研究之一。研究结果强调，一些ID儿童的父亲面临心理健康问题的风险更高，这凸显了提供信息和干预措施以促进其心理健康的重要性。
