Resilience in parents of special needs children : effects of gender, social support and coping strategies.

Abstract

The present study investigated a model of resilience in parents of special needs children which is based on the transactional model of stress (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Not all types and forms of social support are beneficial and cultural differences may exist. Women were found to perceive more social support than men. It was hypothesized that certain types and forms of support would work better for one gender than the other. However, such interaction effects between gender and support were not found. In contrary to past research, emotion-focused coping did not benefit these parents despite the uncontrollable and chronic nature of this stressor. Religious coping was found to be beneficial although this coping strategy is seldom encouraged in interventions.