Comparison of Coping Strategies, Religiosity and Social Support of Mothers having and not having Disabled Adolescents

Author: Amna Javed

Supervisor: Dr. Hamid Sheikh

Degree: MS

Year: 2008-2010

University: Centre for Clinical Psychology, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

The present study was conducted to compare the coping strategies, religiosity and social support among the mothers of disabled and non-disabled adolescents. A sample of 204 consisting of two sub groups i.e. the mothers of disabled adolescents (N=102) and mothers of non-disabled adolescents (N=102). The disabilities of the adolescents included in the study were physical disability, blindness, deafness and dumbness. The measures of Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ, Malik, 2007), Religious Activity Scale(RAS, Sitwat ,2005), modified version of Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ, ) and translated version of Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ, Sarasson et al.1983) and translated version of Spiritual Support Scale (SSS, Manton, 1989), were used in study. The statistical analyses of Independent Sample t-tests,Paired Sample t-test Pearson Correlation were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that there was non-significant difference found in coping strategies i.e. problem focused coping and emotion focused coping across both groups. Similarly findings revealed that there was no difference on Social support among the mothers of disabled adolescents and mothers of non-disabled adolescents. The comparison of religiosity used by both groups yielded significant differences as group of mothers of disabled adolescents scored significantly higher on religiosity as compared to mothers of non-disabled adolescents. While comparison of coping strategies of group of mothers of disabled adolescents showed that they tended to use more emotion focused coping approach as compared to problem focused coping. Correlational analyses showed that there was a positive correlation between problem focused coping approach with religiosity and social support. On the other hand, negative correlation was found between emotion focused coping approaches with social support. However, no relationship was found between the emotion focused coping approaches with religiosity.

Keywords: Social Support, Physical Disability. Religiosity, Coping, Spiritual Support.

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