The Effect of the Mother-Child Development Promotion Program for the Child with Developmental Delay on Mother's Depressive Mood and Parenting Stress

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the parenting stress and depressive mood of mothers with developmentally-delayed children and the effects of participation in a mother-child development promotion program on same. METHODS: Subjects were the mothers of 20 developmentally-delayed children. The severity of the mothers' parenting stress was evaluated via the Korean version of the Parenting Stress Index, Short Form (K-PSI-SF) and the severity of their depressive symptoms were evalueted by the Korean version of the Beck Depression Inventory (K-BDI). RESULTS: The mean K-PSI-SF score and mean K-BDI score for these mothers were 93.35 (SD=10.47) and 23.25 (SD=10.42), respectively. These scores correspond to high parenting stress and moderate depression. The mothers who participated in a mother-child attachment- promotion program showed significant decreases in their K-PSI-SF and KBDI scores. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that a mother-child attachment promotion program with emphasis on child development is effective in reducing parenting stress and depressive mood in mothers of developmentally-delayed children.

Reliability of the Beck Depression Inventory in adolescence

BACKGROUND: Unlike that of adults, depression of adolescents need screening because learning ability, physical growth and social adaptation are seriously affected. But Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), the assessment tool for adults, is generally used for adolescents as well because only few are available. The purpose of this study is to examine the reliability of a Korean version of BDI(K-BDI) as a screening instrument of adolescent depression. METHODS: From May 1, 1998 to June 1, 1998 we visited two high schools (one male, one coeducation) in Sungnam city and K-BDI questionnaires were given. The subjects were 1,107 high school students. This study was to evaluate the reliability of BDI and to find out factor structure through analysis. RESULTS: The sex distribution of subjects was 929(83.9%) males and 178(16.1%) females. Cronbach's internal consistency and Spearman-Brown split half correlation coefficient was 0.85, 0.86, respectively, in the male group, 0.74, 0.86, respectively, in the female group and 0.85, 0.86, respectively,in the total group. By principal axis factoring, 4 factors were extracted. Which were factorI:Negative Self Attitude, factorII:Performance Difficulty, factorIII:Guilty and Psychomotor Retardation, and factorIV:Somatic Symptom. All of the correlations between total BDI score and the individual items showed positive correlation(P<0.001). Average BDI score and prevalence rate was 11.7+/-7.24, 11.4%, respectively, in the male group, 18.51+/-6.65, 34.8%, respectively, in the female group and 12.85+/-7.56, 15.2%, respectively, in the total group. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the K-BDI is a reliable tool in adolescence. Therefore, it may be used as a screening tool for adolescent depression.