Influence of Emotional Maturity and Resilience in Coping among Parents of Kids with Autism and Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Background: Because parenting includes a significant transformation in individuals' lives and comes with obligations, coping mechanisms are essential. As a result, while considering the stage of parenting a special-needs child, carers must show much more tolerance and develop effective coping mechanisms to meet rising expectations. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the influence of emotional maturity and resilience on coping and to find the significant difference in emotional maturity, resilience and coping among parents of children with autism and intellectual disability in terms of gender, residence and nature of disability associated with their children. Materials and Methods: The final sample comprises of 246 participants who were parents of children with autism and intellectual disability who belongs to Thendral Vidyala School, Madurai and near by schools. The above mentioned samples were administered with Emotional Maturity Scale, Resilience Scale for Adults and Brief - Cope scale along with the acquisition of certain socio-demographic variables. Results: The results shows that there is significant positive relationship between variables emotional maturity and resilience. Likewise, there is an inverse relationship between emotional maturity and coping & resilience and coping. The study also suggest that there is differences in coping in terms of gender and resilience in terms of nature of disability associated with their children among parents of children with autism and intellectual disability.