Parents of children with enduring epilepsy: predictors of parenting stress and parenting.
OBJECTIVE
The goals of the work described here were (1) to predict parenting stress and parenting from stressors, resources, and parental coping behaviors in parents of children with epilepsy, and (2) to determine whether parenting stress mediates the effects of these predictors on parenting.


METHODS
Participants were 91 parents of children with epilepsy (mean age of children=8 years, 5 months). Parental perceptions of stressors, resources, parental coping behaviors, parenting stress, and parenting were assessed by means of questionnaires. Regression analyses were used to analyze the unique and combined power of the predictors to predict parenting stress and parenting. Sobel tests were used to identify the mediational role of parenting stress.


RESULTS
Evidence was found for direct effects of stressors, resources, and coping behaviors on parenting stress and parenting, with relatively large effects for stressors. The mediational role of parenting stress was largest in the domain of parental behavioral control.


CONCLUSIONS
In the context of pediatric epilepsy, parenting stress mediates both disruptive and resilient family factors for their effects on parenting. Parents of children with epilepsy may benefit from parent training programs that, to reduce parenting stress, address epilepsy education, the management of difficult child temperament, building social support networks, and the modification of inadequate parental coping behaviors.
Rodenburg
Roos
R
Department of Educational Studies, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. h.r.rodenburg@uva.nl
Meijer
Anne Marie
AM
Deković
Maja
M
Aldenkamp
Albert P
AP
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000523:psychology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires