Perceived community support, parenting self-efficacy, and family resilience in special needs parenting: a SEM approach

This study examined whether parenting self-efficacy mediates the relationship between perceived community support and family resilience among parents of children with special needs. Raising a child with special needs requires strong family resilience. While community support is a recognized external resource, how internal factors such as parenting self-efficacy influence the association between community support and family resilience is still not well understood. Using a cross-sectional correlational design, data were collected from 372 parents in Türkiye. Participants completed validated scales measuring perceived community support, parenting self-efficacy, and family resilience. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple-group SEM (MG-SEM). SEM results indicated that perceived community support was positively associated with parenting self-efficacy (β = 0.47, p < .001) and family resilience (β = 0.28, p < .001). Parenting self-efficacy was a significant predictor of family resilience (β = 0.53, p < .001) and partially explained the relationship between perceived community support and resilience, accounting for 52.1% of the total association. MG-SEM results revealed significant group differences by gender (Δχ2(3) = 164.82, p < .001); specifically, formal path comparisons showed that the association between perceived community support and parenting self-efficacy was significantly stronger for mothers than for fathers. Furthermore, pairwise comparisons indicated that this link was more prominent among younger parents, while the relationship between self-efficacy and resilience was most pronounced in the middle-aged parent group. Parenting self-efficacy is a significant internal factor associated with the relationship between perceived community support and family resilience. These results suggest that parents’ beliefs in their own competence are linked to the relationship between community support and family resilience. Consequently, interventions and policy strategies may benefit from prioritizing empowerment-based support networks to enhance self-efficacy and support the resilience of all parents of children with special needs.