The Effects of Parenting Stress on the Parents Quality of Life of Parents of Children with Down Syndrome: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Parents’ Perceptions
AUTHOR : 김윤혜,박혜준
INFORMATION : page. 97~114 / 2014 Vol.21 No.2
ABSTRACT
This study attempted to analyze the interactions between parenting stress, quality of life and positive
perceptions, as well as the impact of parenting stress on parents’ quality of life and parents’ perceptions.
In addition, the study also aimed at elucidating the role of parents’ perceptions as a mediating effect on
the impact of parenting stress on their quality of life. Using PASW statistics 18, analyses was performed.
The major findings of the study were as follows. First, the parenting stress of parents of children with
Down syndrome had a statistically significant causal relationship with parents’ quality of life and their
positive perceptions. Second, when the sociological characteristics of parents were controlled, the positive
perceptions of parents of children with Down syndrome had a partial mediating effect upon the causal
relationship between parenting stress and the quality of parents’ lives. This study found that not only
parenting stress had a direct effect on parents’ quality of life and positive perceptions, but it also had a
mediating effect on the relationship between quality of life and positive perceptions. As a result, it was
confirmed that parenting stress from raising children with Down syndrome affected parent positive
perceptions of children, and positive perceptions, which, in turn, affected the quality of parents’ lives.