Analysis of Parenting Stress, Coping and the Quality of Life for the Mother of Children Suffering from Epilepsy

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting the parenting stress, coping and the quality of life for the mother of children suffering from epilepsy. METHODS: Research subjects were 176 mothers of a child between 0 to 12 years old, who visited pediatric neurology department at a general hospital in Seoul. The data were collected between October 1, 2015 and October 20, 2015. The questionnaire was composed of a total of 75 questions 36 questions on parenting stress, 13 questions on coping ability, and 26 questions on quality of life. The collected data were analyzed by Cronbach's α, percentage, mean, frequency, standard deviation, ANOVA, Pearson's correlations, t-test, Scheffe post hoc test, and Hierarchical regression analysis using SPSS WIN 22.0 program. RESULTS: 1) The mean scores of the parenting stress, coping ability and quality of life were 2.47±0.68, 3.83±1.29, 3.23±0.60. 2) The subjects showed significant differences in parenting stress depending on their occupation, monthly income, age of the child, the child's age at the time of epilepsy diagnosis, frequency of the child's seizure, the child's developmental delay, and the child's exposure to other disease and brain damage among general characteristics of the subjects. 3) Correlation analysis resulted in negative correlation between the parenting stress and quality of life, and positive correlation between coping ability and quality of life. 4) Regression analysis found that parenting stress and coping are the factors affecting quality of life. Finally, the model containing both parenting stress and coping explained 52.41% of variation in quality of life, and parenting stress had the highest influence. CONCLUSION: nursing intervention and educational program should be developed to improve the quality of life in the mother of children with epilepsy. Furthermore, governmental support is required to help with reducing parenting stress to better the quality of life for the mother.