An-Najah Staff

Introduction: Mothers of children with disabilities often experience greater stress and emotional demands than do other mothers. Mothers of those children showed more psychological distress than other member in their families, as they are the primary caregivers for their children. Childhood disability often imposes a social and emotional burden for children and their families.

Aim: to assess the prevalence and severity of depression among mothers of disabled children in the north of the West Bank in order to establish baseline data and suggest recommendations to policy makers and professional workers.

Subject and Methods: Subject and Methods: A descriptive, analytical kind (cross sectional) study.

200 mothers were included in the study divided in two groups, including 100 mothers of children with disabilities (age range, 2-16years) as a study group, and 100 mothers of normally developing children (age range, 2-16 years) as a control group. There were 47% girls,

and 53% boys in the children of the control group and there were 38% girls and 62% boys in the children of the study group .

These children have different diagnoses with a 10% down syndrome, 18% Hearing disabilities, 7 % physical disability, 11% speech disorders, 18% autism, 14% mental retardation, 12% cerebral palsy and 10 % other disorder The mothers’ average ages in the study group and control group were 32.6 (SD±6.3) and 31(SD± 5.7) years, respectively. A demographic information form and Beck Depression Inventory were administered to mothers of these children who met the inclusion criteria. The assessments were performed during children´s treatment in rehabilitation centers.

Result: 54% of mothers of disabled children had a mild to severe level of depression and 18% of the them suffered from moderate to severe depression. There is a statistical significance difference between depression score and family style in the study group. The mothers who live with their extended family had higher depression scores than mothers who live with the nuclear family (p=0.0130). On the other hand there was no association in the study group between mothers´ depression score and mothers´ age, child age, educational level of the mothers and family income. When we compare between the study and control groups, the study reveals that there are many factors to increase the prevalence of depression among mothers in the study group compared to control group which include: child’s age <10 years, mother’s age <40 years, middle and low income, and un-employment.

For the control group (mothers of normally developing children) 15% of them had a mild to severe level of depression and 2% had moderate to severe depression and there was association between mothers depression score and mothers age >40 years (p=0.001), child age > 10 y (p=0.034), law educational level of the mothers(p=0.004) and law family income (p= 0.009). 

The result of this study indicates that there was a significant difference between mothers’ depression score with respect to having or not having disabled children (u=1911, p<0.01).

The mothers of children with physical disabilities (rank mean was 61.29) and cerebral palsy (rank mean was 58.29) have a higher depression score than mothers with children of other kinds of disabilities, and the lowest level of depression score was for mothers whose children have down syndrome, which had a rank mean of 37.95.

Conclusion: 

The results of this study indicate that there is a significant association between mothers depression score and the presence of disability. 

In study group, the study reveals that the disability itself tends to be consider as a strong factor to increase the prevalence and severity of depression in addition to extended family style, When we compare between the study and control groups , the study reveals that there are many factors to increase the prevalence of depression among mothers in the study group compared to control group which include: child’s age <10 years, mother’s age <40 years, middle and low income, and un-employment.

Recommendation: Early recognition of depression symptoms in mothers of disabled children should be of great concern for health care providers. The effective rehabilitation programs should provide ample opportunity for repeated follow-up interviews that not only offers information about children's disabilities but also psychological support for mothers. Shifting the rehabilitation services from child-centered to family-centered services through providing supportive services is recommended.