Alfasi Yitshak, Maytles Ruth, Besser Avi
Department of Behavioral Sciences, Interdisciplinary Faculty for Science, Health and Society, Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem 91010, Israel.
Department of Social Work, Interdisciplinary Faculty for Society and Community, Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem 91010, Israel.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Jan 29;15(2):148. doi: 10.3390/bs15020148.
The October 7th events precipitated an unprecedented psychological crisis for Israeli families, particularly affecting parents of children with special needs. This empirical study aimed to investigate the psychological factors contributing to parental stress and mental health outcomes in a community sample of 2097 parents, comparing those with children with special needs ( = 540) to those with typically developing children ( = 1557). Findings revealed that parents of children with special needs exhibited significantly higher levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance, parental stress, and intolerance of uncertainty, while reporting lower levels of parental competence, perceived social support, and mental health. Notably, meaning in life did not significantly differ between the groups. Correlational analyses indicated that attachment anxiety and avoidance were negatively correlated with parental competence, social support, meaning in life, and mental health while positively correlating with parental stress and intolerance of uncertainty. Mediation analyses showed that attachment anxiety and avoidance significantly predicted increased parental stress and reduced mental health, with these effects mediated by lower parental competence and diminished meaning in life. Moreover, intolerance of uncertainty mediated the effect of attachment anxiety on mental health. However, the mediating role of perceived social support on parental stress was absent among parents of children with special needs. These findings underscore the need for targeted interventions that bolster parental resilience, particularly for families of children with special needs during times of crisis.
10月7日的事件给以色列家庭带来了前所未有的心理危机，尤其影响了有特殊需求儿童的父母。这项实证研究旨在调查在一个由2097名父母组成的社区样本中，导致父母压力和心理健康结果的心理因素，将有特殊需求儿童的父母（=540）与发育正常儿童的父母（=1557）进行比较。研究结果显示，有特殊需求儿童的父母表现出显著更高水平的依恋焦虑和回避、父母压力以及对不确定性的不耐受，同时报告的父母能力、感知到的社会支持和心理健康水平较低。值得注意的是，两组之间生活意义没有显著差异。相关分析表明，依恋焦虑和回避与父母能力、社会支持、生活意义和心理健康呈负相关，而与父母压力和对不确定性的不耐受呈正相关。中介分析表明，依恋焦虑和回避显著预测了父母压力的增加和心理健康的降低，这些影响通过较低的父母能力和生活意义的减少来介导。此外，对不确定性的不耐受介导了依恋焦虑对心理健康的影响。然而，在有特殊需求儿童的父母中，感知到的社会支持对父母压力的中介作用不存在。这些发现强调了有针对性干预措施的必要性，这些措施可以增强父母的复原力，特别是在危机时期对有特殊需求儿童的家庭。
