Comparing Social Support and Social Anxiety between Mothers of Children with Special Needs and Mothers of Normal Children

The purpose of this study was to compare social support and social anxiety of mothers of children with cerebral palsy، Down syndrome and autism with mothers of normal children in Isfahan in 2013 (1392s. c.). A causal-comparative study was used in this research. The research sample which was selected randomly consisted of 90 mothers of children with special needs (30 mothers of children with down syndrome، 30 mothers of children with autism and 30 mothers of children with cerebral palsy) and 30 mothers of normal children attending primary schools in Isfahan. To collect the data، Social Support Questionnaire (Norbeck،1981) and Social Phobia Inventory (Conner et al.، 2000) were used. The results of multivariate analysis of variance indicated that there were significant differences between mothers of children with special needs and mothers of normal children in social support and social anxiety (P<0. 001). Furthermore، comparisons showed that mothers having a child with autism suffered the social anxiety more than mothers having a child with Down syndrome or a child with cerebral palsy (P<0. 001). Finally mothers of children with autism experienced the highest level of social anxiety compared to the rest of mothers studied in the research (P<0. 001).