Coping and psychological distress of Chinese parents of children with Down syndrome.

Coping and correlates of psychological distress of Chinese parents of children with Down syndrome were examined and compared to parents of children with language delays or no disabilities. Individual parent scores were used for analyses, with groups and gender of child and parent as independent factors. Down syndrome group parents reported the most frequent use of avoidance coping style, followed by parents of the language delay and no disabilities groups. Compared to parents in the no disabilities group, the other parents reported a higher level of psychological distress, were less optimistic, felt less self-efficacious, and engaged in more frequent use of self-reliance coping style. Main effects for parent gender revealed that mothers engaged in more frequent use of self-reliance, avoidance, and seeking social support coping styles. Mothers also reported a higher level of distress but lower levels of optimism and self-mastery. Intercorrelations among variables showed that avoidance coping style and self-mastery emerged as the two robust correlates of parental distress.