[Effects of an empowerment program on the burden of mothers having a child with cerebral palsy].
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to develop an empowerment program as a nursing intervention for mothers who care for a child with cerebral palsy at home and to determine the effects of the program on those mothers' self efficacy, coping behavior and burden.


METHODS
An non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used in this study. An Empowerment program was developed based on Dunst & Trivette's model. Using the program, the study was carried out from Dec. 13, 2003 to Jan. 17, 2004, mothers whose children, aged 1 to 6, were outpatients of the Dept. of Rehabilitation Medicine, at P University Hospital or registered at educational institutions for early disabled children. The experimental group of subjects were included in the new empowerment program which was held for two and half hours every week for 6 times.


RESULTS
After treatment with the Empowerment Program, the experimental group was found to be significantly increased in score for self efficacy(t=4.55, p<.01), coping behavior(t=5.54, p<.001), objective burden(t=-3.96, p<.01) and subjective burden(t=-5.05, p<.01), in comparison to the control group.


CONCLUSIONS
The Empowerment Program is very effective in increasing self efficacy and coping behavior of mothers having a child with cerebral palsy and decreasing their burden. Finally, this study would recommend that an empowerment program should be extended to community facilities such as public health offices and welfare centers.
Eo
Yong Sook
YS
Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea. NursingEo@hanafos.com
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002547:Cerebral Palsy; D002648:Child; D017281:Cost of Illness; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011209:Power, Psychological; D020377:Self Efficacy