An Investigation into the Levels of Coping with Depression and Stress Among Parents of Individuals with Disabilities

The aim of this study is to examine the levels of coping with depression and stress of the parents of individuals with disabilities. In the study, 212 parents of individuals with disabilities, attending special education and rehabilitation centres in İstanbul, participated. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman correlation analysis were used for data analysis. Depression levels of the parents differed significantly on behalf of female parents in terms of gender variable, and on behalf of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder in terms of child's disability type variable. The depression levels of the parents did not differ significantly in terms of the child's gender and economic level variable. It was determined that mothers predominantly used problem-focused coping and social support strategies when addressing stress, according to the gender variable in the parents' coping levels.Although no significant difference was found in the parents' levels of coping with stress in terms of the child's gender, disability type, and income level, it was found that parents with high education levels used problem-focused coping and social support strategies in the education level variable.