The Role of Attitude and Resiliency in Predicting the Quality of Life of Parents of Children with Special Needs

Background and Purpose: The quality of life of parents of children with special needs and the factors affecting it is an important issue that needs to be studied and explained carefully. Numerous variables and factors have been investigated in different studies to explain the quality of life of these parents. However, the present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between attitude and resiliency with the quality of life of parents of children with special needs. The present study was a descriptive correlational study. The population consisted of the parents of all children with special needs in Rasht city in 2015-2016. Among them, 110 parents (55 mothers & 55 fathers) were selected by convenience sampling. For collecting data, attitudes of parents towards their mentally retarded children (Govender, 2002), the Conner-Davidson resilience scale (Connor & Davidson, 2003) and WHOQOL-BREF (1996) were used. Finally, the data were analyzed by Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression. Results of the study indicated that attitude and resiliency of parents of children with special needs have a significant correlation with their quality of life; and that attitude (β = - 0.30) and resiliency (β=0/47) can significantly predict the quality of life of parents of children with special needs (p<.001). According to the results of this study, attitude and resiliency are among the factors affecting the quality of life of parents of children with special needs. Implications of the results have been discussed in the article.