| This study investigated the degree to which parenting stress and perceived social support affected parents/caregivers of children with disabilities/delays involved in Center-based and In-home early intervention programs. Nineteen female parents/caregivers (12 Center-based and seven in-home) aged 19 to 65 (M = 36.11, SD = 11.51) participated in the study. Participants completed a survey consisting of the Personal Resource Questionnaire- Part Two, Parenting Stress Index- Short Form, and demographics questions. Participants included parents/caregivers of children with differing disorders/delays such as autism, Down syndrome, prematurity, and developmental delays. This study had a between group and within subjects design; participants in both groups filled out materials pre-intervention and after eight weeks of intervention. As expected, a significant negative correlation was found between parenting stress and perceived social support. Although this relationship existed, other hypotheses regarding between and within groups were not supported. Participants across groups differed in how parenting stressed changed; 10 participants' level of parenting stress decreased over time while nine experienced an increase in parenting stress. Likewise, there were different experiences of social support across groups, as eight participants experienced an increase in perceived social support, and 11 experienced a decrease in perceived social support. It was hypothesized that there would be a difference between how parents/caregivers in Center-based programs reported parenting stress and perceived social support versus parents/caregivers in In-home programs, but statistical tests did not support this hypothesis. There were no significant differences in the way parents/caregivers experience parenting stress and perceived social support over time or between groups. Additional studies are needed to examine further the experiences of parents/caregivers whose children are receiving different forms of early intervention.;Keywords: early intervention, social support, parenting stress. |
