Religious Coping and general health in mothers of normal children and those with mentally retarded children

The birth of an exceptional child in a family can be considered as an undesirable challenging event that is associated with stress, frustration and despair. Recognition and understanding religious beliefs system has a significant influence on coping with behaviors and interpretation of events .The purpose of this study was to compare the religious coping and general health of mothers of normal children and those with mentally retarded children. The research method is causal-comparative. The study sample consisted of 68 mothers with mentally retarded children and 57 mothers with normal children who were selected and homogenized through convenience sampling method. The questionnaire of Religious Coping of Aflaksier and Goldman (2011), and General Health of Goldberg (1979) were used for data collection. T test analysis was used for analyzing the data. The results of t-test showed that there is a significant difference between the two groups of mothers, with mentally retarded children and with normal children, in religious coping dimensions (P≤0.001). Descriptive data indicated that means of benevolent appraisal and active religious activity in mothers with normal children is more than the means of mothers with mentally retarded ones. Also, the results of t-test show that there is a significant difference between the two groups of mothers in means of public health (P≤0.001). The results showed that mothers of normal children have more benevolent appraisal, active religious activity and mental health. But mothers of mentally retarded children have a negative religious coping and less mental health. Therefore the instruction of benevolent and active religious coping skills is recommended for the improvement of mental health in mothers of mentally retarded children.