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Emotional Freedom Technique as an Intervention tool in dealing with Stress among Mothers of the children with Intellectual Disability
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This exploratory study was designed to examine the stress faced by mothers of children with intellectual disabilities in Pakistan and the impact of the stress on their family life. One hundred mothers of children with intellectual disabilities in Karachi city, which is in Sindh region of Pakistan, were invited and interviewed. The results indicate that mothers having children with intellectual disabilities face high level of stress due to financial constraints, the inappropriate behavior of the children with intellectual disabilities and lack of resources and therapy facilities for their children. The mothers had symptoms of depression and negative emotional feelings which caused a negative impact on their family life. However, the social support system in Pakistan, because of joint family system, results in less stress among parents having children with intellectual disabilities. Offering prayers, watching television and chatting with friends on the telephone are the most common strategies used by these mothers.
Studies have shown an association between parental distress and caretaking of children with developmental cognitive delays. There is little data in developing countries, such as Pakistan, concerning the impact of raising children with intellectual disability upon the quality of parent functioning and risk for psychopathology.
To assess the level of psychopathology i.e. anxiety, depression and both anxiety and depression together among parents of children with intellectual disability (ID).
This was a cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan. The study was approved by the Institutional Research Committee. Participants were 198 parents (99 fathers/99 mothers) of 100 children with the diagnosis of ID. Informed consents were obtained. The parents were assessed for anxiety and depression using DSM IV criteria.
Significantly high proportion of mothers (89%) had anxiety, depression, or both anxiety and depression together as compared to fathers (77%) (p-value <0.05). Among mothers, 35% met criteria for anxiety, 40% for depression and 13% for both anxiety and depression. Among fathers 42% had anxiety, 31% depression and 3% both anxiety and depression. There was a significant association between gender of parent and individual psychiatric diagnosis of anxiety, depression and anxiety and depression together (p-value <0.05). A significant association was also found between mother's anxiety, depression or both and degree of ID of their children (p-value <0.05).
1) Significantly high proportion of parents of children with ID has psychiatric diagnosis of anxiety, depression or both; 2) the psychiatric diagnosis of anxiety, depression and anxiety and depression together is associated with gender of parent; and, 3) the diagnosis of anxiety, depression or both in mothers was associated with severity of ID in their children.
The population for this study was drawn from an institution to which juveniles are sent by court order if they are found by a judge to be physically or psychologically abused at home. Sixteen males, aged 12 – 17, were randomized into two groups. They were assessed using subjective distress (SUD), and the Impact of Events scale (IES), which measures two components of PTSD: intrusive memories and avoidance symptoms. The experimental group was treated with a single session of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), a brief and novel exposure therapy that has been found efficacious in reducing PTSD and co-occurring psychological symptoms in adults, but has not been subject to empirical assessment in juveniles. The wait list control group received no treatment. Thirty days later subjects were reassessed. No improvement occurred in the wait list (IES total mean pre=32 SD ±4.82, post=31 SD ±3.84). Posttest scores for all experimental group subjects improved to the point where all were non-clinical on the total score (IES total mean pre=36 SD ±4.74, post=3 SD ±2.60, p<0.001), as well as the intrusive and avoidant symptom subscales, and SUD. These results are consistent with those found in adults, and indicates the utility of single-session EFT as a fast and effective intervention for reducing psychological trauma in juveniles.
Children with intellectual disability are at heightened risk for behaviour problems and diagnosed mental disorder.
The present authors studied the early manifestation and continuity of problem behaviours in 205 pre-school children with and without developmental delays.
Behaviour problems were quite stable over the year from age 36-48 months. Children with developmental delays were rated higher on behaviour problems than their non-delayed peers, and were three times as likely to score in the clinical range. Mothers and fathers showed high agreement in their rating of child problems, especially in the delayed group. Parenting stress was also higher in the delayed group, but was related to the extent of behaviour problems rather than to the child's developmental delay.
Over time, a transactional model fit the relationship between parenting stress and behaviour problems: high parenting stress contributed to a worsening in child behaviour problems over time, and high child behaviour problems contributed to a worsening in parenting stress. Findings for mothers and fathers were quite similar.
Context:
In Australia and throughout much of the world, rates of obesity continue to climb as do the prevalence of eating disorders, particularly in adolescents. Psychological consequences of childhood obesity include low self-esteem, depression, body dissatisfaction, and social maladjustment (Young-Hyman et al., 2012).
Objective and intervention:
This feasibility study sought to examine the impact of a six-week Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) group treatment program upon eating behaviours, self-esteem, compassion, and psychological symptoms.
Design:
Forty-four students were randomly allocated to either the EFT group or the waitlist control group.
Results:
Results revealed a delayed effect for both groups at post-intervention, with improved eating habits, self-esteem, and compassion at follow-up. Findings provide preliminary support for EFT as an effective treatment strategy for increasing healthy eating behaviours and improving associated weight-related psychopathology.
To study the various coping strategies used by the parents of mentally challenged individuals, fathers and mothers of 628 mentally challenged individuals are assessed using the Coping Checklist by Rao K, Subbakrishna and Prabhu, which taps seven coping strategies namely problem solving, positive distraction, negative distraction, acceptance-redefinition, religion-faith, denial-blame, and social support. Results indicate that fathers and mothers differ significantly at 0.001 level with regard to use of all the seven strategies. Other than religion-faith and denial-blame, on all other five strategies the mean is more for fathers. Most of the coping strategies remain unutilized by most of the parents to a proper extent. For fathers, most commonly used coping strategies are problem solving and acceptance-redefinition. For mothers, most commonly used coping strategies are problem solving, religion–faith and denial-blame. Both fathers and mothers use problem-focused coping more often than the emotion-focused coping. Fathers use problem-focused coping more often than the mothers and mothers use emotion-focused coping more often than the fathers. Higher educational level, nonagricultural occupation, higher income and urban status of the family are the important factors predicting higher levels of coping. The early focus on study of stress was followed by focus on study of coping as well. Van (1999) opines that research in future needs to shift the focus from assessing stress and distress, to assessing resilience and adaptation, because there is need for an understanding of the factors that contribute to resilience and successful adaptation. The coping strategies are classified into two types. One is problem-focused and the other one is emotion-focused. In problem-focused coping the person is attempting to deal constructively with the stressor or situation it self; whereas, in emotion-focused coping the focus is on dealing with the person's own fears, anger or guilt.
Parents of children with intellectual disabilities are at increased risk for stress and other mental health problems. The purpose of the present review is to consider the evidence base for psychological intervention to remediate stress in these parents.
A selective review of interventions designed to reduce stress in parents of children with intellectual disabilities, with a focus on group interventions that incorporate various cognitive behavioural techniques.
Research evidence suggests that standard service models (e.g., respite care, case management) probably help to reduce parental stress. The strongest evidence base is for cognitive behavioural group interventions, especially for the reduction of stress in mothers. Some data also indicate the potential value of parent-led support networks.
More research and clinical development are needed to establish a firmer evidence base for stress interventions with parents of children with intellectual disabilities. There are also a number of potential practical implications of reducing parental stress for maximising the efficacy of general parent training interventions and also behavioural programmes for children's challenging behaviours.
A study on the problems faced by the parents in handling the mentally challenged children in Mangalore District
- L Shetty
- S Menezes
Shetty, L., & Menezes, S. (2013). A study on the problems faced by the parents in
handling the mentally challenged children in Mangalore District. Global Journal of
Interdisciplinary Social Sciences. Vol. 2(1) 2013: pp 1-5