Child Involvement and Stress in Greek Mothers of Deaf Children

Abstract

Forty-two mothers of Greek deaf children reported their level of stress, availability of support, duration and frequency of involvement with their children, and affective tone of involvement, using an adaptation of Hill's ABCX model of stress and support (1949). Data on the interaction among six caregiving categories were collected over a 2-day period. Mothers of younger children and of boys, as well as mothers reporting greater stress, had longer and more frequent involvement. Mothers with greater stress were also more likely to rate the affective tone of their involvement as more neutral or as chorelike. Support availability was unrelated to involvement, with the exception of supporting neighbors. Compared to Canadian mothers of children both with and without disabilities, exposed to the same study protocol, the mothers in the present study were not more stressed. However, they were more likely to report a negative affective tone in their caregiving.

The daily patterns of time use for parents of children with complex needs

“…Greek mothers of children with DS are involved in ‘recreation and education’ activities 12 times daily, double that of comparison group parents (Padeliadu, 1998). Parents of deaf children spend an average of 37 minutes per day in teaching and education (Lampropoulou and Konstantareas, 1998), while 54% of Australian primary caregivers spent a median 75 minutes/weekday undertaking therapy with their child (Crettenden, 2007). Children with spastic tetraplegia average 203 care procedures per week (Edebol-Tysk, 1989).…”

Nonword Repetition and Reading Skills in Children Who Are Deaf and Have Cochlear Implants

“…The authors stated that a number of cultural issues seemed to affect their results: there are few government programs available to parents (exosystem), and the macrosystem (beliefs of a culture) leaves the microsystem (those closest to the parent-immediate family members) and mesosystem (those directly or indirectly involved with the parents-extended family, neighbors) levels to manage stressors. Lampropoulou and Konstantareas (1998) examined the degree of maternal involvement and affective tone in the same cohort of Greek mothers. The authors noted that the mothers knew very little sign language, which limited communication with their children and may have exacerbated stress levels.…”

Time demands and experienced stress in Greek mothers of children with Down's syndrome

“…To record duration and frequency of time demands, as well as the perceived affective tone, each mother was asked to independently complete a form with child-related activities that demanded her time (Lampropoulou & Konstantareas 1997). This self-report form was used instead of time budgets or diaries, because mothers felt that keeping a diary would also place additional demands on them, and because the present author mostly interested in comparing them with the mothers of the nondisabled children.…”