A Study to Assess the Psychological Problems of Mothers with Mentally Challenged Children in Selected Special Schools at Mysuru

Background: All parents wish for a healthy baby but some parents though not by their choice are gifted with mentally retarded child. Some are able to cope up with such a situation and some experience psychological stress. Mothers of mentally challenged children showed more psychological distress like (denial, shock, anger, grief, guilt, embarrassment, depression, with drawl, ambivalence and fear of stigma) than other member in their families, as they are the primary caregivers for their children.

Aim: The present study was aimed to assess the psychological problems of mothers with mentally challenged children in selected special schools at Mysuru. Methodology: A descriptive survey approach was adopted for the present study. The samples were selected using Non- Probability purposive sampling. 100 mothers of mentally challenged children were selected for the present study. Data was collected with the help of following tool Proforma for selected personal variables and self administered rating scale to assess the psychological problems.

Results: Collected data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the present study revealed that majority of the mothers were having moderate psychological problem. There is a significant association the between level of hopelessness and their age at 0.05 and it was found not significant with other variables. There is no significant association found between the level of helplessness, sadness, social isolation and agitation of mothers with mentally challenged children and their selected personal variables.

Conclusion: Mothers with mentally challenged children were having moderate psychological problems. Caring a mentally challenged child can produce great stress and a sense of imbalance in the mental health especially for mothers. Thus these mothers are in need of a wide range of support and educational programs that offer broad information about mental retardation along with therapeutic and effective strategies to address these stressors, improve their mental health and prevention of psychological problems.