title: Stress in Greek mothers with deaf children. Effects of child characteristics, family resources and cognitive set.
abstract: In an effort to understand the impact of their children's deafness on Greek mothers, demographic, disability-related and stress characteristics were examined with 42 hearing mothers and their deaf children. The work was based on Hill's ABCX model and Bronfenbrenner's social ecology model, entailing a microsystem, mesosystem, ecosystem, and macrosystem. In addition to child history obtained from school records, Rotter's locus of control scale, Coopersmith's self-esteem inventory and the Clarke questionnaire on resources and stress were given to mothers. Onset of deafness before 18 months of age was associated with greater maternal stress. A tendency for mothers of younger children to report more stress was evident. The mothers mainly had an external locus of control, attributing events to outside agents beyond their control. Self-esteem proved the best predictor of stress, with a low-esteem associated with greater reported stress. The findings are discussed with reference to disability-related and cultural factors.
authors.affiliation: University of Guelph.
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Konstantareas
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lampropoulou
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003638:Deafness; D005192:Family Health; D006115:Greece; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires