Psychological well-being, social support and overload in parents of children with disabilities

Abstract

Objective: To establish the relationship between psychological well-being, perceived social support and overload in caregivers of children with some developmental condition or disability, knowing the influence of some sociodemographic variables on the results of the psychological variables. Methods: A quantitative correlational-cross-sectional study and simple random sampling were carried out. The sample consisted of 83 caregivers of children with some developmental condition or disability, who completed the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and the Zarit Caregiver Overload questionnaire. Results: The results reveal a positive correlation between the dimensions of psychological well-being and social support; the caregiver overload dimension correlates negatively with these two psychological variables. Significant changes in the psychological variables were also identified when incorporating sociodemographic factors of the caregiver, such as gender, current situation and age, as well as aspects associated with the child, such as age, gender, type of disability and time since diagnosis. Discussions: The degree of informal social support perceived by caregivers of children with disabilities allows achieving an optimal psychological well-being since it determines the existence or not of overload. Some sociodemographic variables seem to influence the experience of these caregivers.