Burden and adopted coping strategies among caregivers of mentally challenged children in selected special school at Bankura, West Bengal

Background: Parents or caregivers of mentally challenged children experience a high level of burden from different aspects of their lives. Taking care of a mentally challenged child is more stressful than taking care of a normal child. Aims: The aims of this study are to assess the burden, adopted coping strategies of the caregivers of mentally challenged children and find out the relationship between the caregiver’s burdens and adopted coping strategies. Materials and Methods: 106 caregivers of mentally challenged children were selected by purposive sampling from a selected special school at Bankura, West Bengal. Standardized Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) schedule was used to assess burden and standardized brief COPE scale was used to identify adopted coping strategies. Results: The study result revealed that 30.18% of caregivers had severe burden, 58.49% had moderate to severe burden, 9.45% had mild burden and 1.88% had no burden and they experienced highest burden in finances. Majority (76.41%) of caregivers adopted moderate coping strategies. Burden was negatively correlated with adopted coping strategies at 0.05 level of significance. Conclusion: As mentally challenged children is increasing day by day which increases the caregiver’s burden, so prior assessment will help to prevent and manage disabilities and to adopt effective coping mechanism to reduce the caregiver’s burden.