The Relationship Between Stress Levels and The Quality of life of Children with Disability

Abstract

Introduction: Children with disabilities have physical activity, learning, and mobility limitations. Children with disabilities can affect their parents’ quality of life, especially stress levels. A process of assistance is needed for the rehabilitation, care, and education of children with disabilities, as well as measuring parents’ quality of life and stress levels. This study was conceived to assess the stress level of parents of children with disabilities.

Methods: This study uses a mixed method approach with a quantitative approach applying a cross-sectional research design. The research was conducted in Padang from January to October 2021, consisting of children aged 8 to 14 and their parents. The study used the DASS questionnaire, and the data was processed and tabulated using SPSS version 2.5.

Results: A total of 87 respondents (50.3%) had moderate stress, 112 respondents had very high anxiety (64.7%), and 77 respondents had very severe depression (44.5%). There is a relationship between stress levels and the quality of life (P-value 0.003). Meanwhile, the level of anxiety (P-value 0.528) and depression (P-value 0.182) were not related to the quality of life of children with disabilities.

Conclusions: Most of the respondents had moderate stress levels and severe levels of anxiety and depression. There is a relationship between stress levels and the quality of life of children with disabilities, but there is no relationship between anxiety levels and depression levels.