[Perception of stress by mothers of children with language development disorders]

Subject of this study is the maternal stress as a result of the disabilities of language impaired children. The report concentrates on the influence of the children disabilities and the maternal coping strategies on the stress in the families. The study is based on an inquiry of 98 mothers with speech and language impaired children. Nearly 50% of the mothers suffer from stress because of their children' disabilities. Special caregiving demands, family conflicts, anxiety about the child future, depressive mood, aggressive feeling or deception were often experienced by the mothers as a direct consequence of their child's problems. The correlation of this specific maternal stress with general stress factors was insignificant. The maternal stress was more due to the attention deficits and the behavioural problems of the children than to the language delay. An increased level of stress was hardly related to the severity of the impairment, but to the maternal coping strategies. Mothers applying emotion focused coping strategies experienced more stress than those who predominantly used problem focused strategies. The results prove that mothers of children with even minor disabilities feel overstrained by their children' disorders. During counseling experts should attach more importance to deal with the needs and wishes of mothers and families of language impaired children. Reduction of family stress can be achieved by intervention programs helping the mothers to improve their psychological resources.