Master of Arts (Applied Psychology)

This study has attempted to clarify how parents of young children with special needs in Singapore perceive their disabilities and how stressed they feel as a result. VABS is employed for rating the functional levels of children with disabilities in tandem with QRS-F which is used for rating parental stress. The relationships between child characteristics, socio-ecological characteristics, and social support network on parental stress are examined.

The findings show that parents with younger children below six years old tend to over/under estimate their child's functional levels. However, they adjust their perceptions over time. Parents of children with disabilities experience more stress than do parents of children without disabilities. The severity of the child's disability has an impact on the experience of parents but the differences experienced stress among the parents of the children with different disabilities are not statistically significant. Child and socio-ecological characteristics interact in the production of parental stress. Variables studied would need to be considered in a multivariate context to fully appreciate the nature of parental stress in families of children with disabilities. Singaporean parents of children with disabilities receive support mainly from spouse, school parents and siblings, friends and doctors. The spouse is found to be the most supportive resource. Finally, maternal stress is found to be related to the degree of social support mothers of children with disabilities experience: the greater the degree of support, the lower their stress.

The limitations of this study are addressed in order to make realistic interpretations of the findings, and, recommendations for future studies, in improving social support services for parents of children with disabilities in Singapore are proposed.