Links between Perceived Stress and Social Support for Parents of Children and Teenagers Suffering from Cerebral Palsy

Mustapha Mouilly, Noureddine Faiz, Ahmed Omar Touhami Ahami

Abstract: The child with cerebral palsy (CP) requires special care; this responsibility becomes heavier at the age of adolescence. Parents during these times through difficult times resulting in a deteriorated physical state and a disturbed mental health expressed a high level of stress. Few studies that seek to study the impact of the disease on the lives of parents and to find out the links between this experience and the support provided to this population. A study protocol consisting of questionnaires, scales were used to measure the impact of cerebral palsy children and adolescents on the stress levels of their parents and to seek the links between perceived stress and the assured social support, 67 relatives (34 mothers and 33 fathers) of children with cerebral palsy participated in this global exploratory study, Most of our results support our hypothesis and confirm the literature in this field little studied in Morocco. Indeed it seems that the parents of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy suffer from high stress levels this suffering seems more pronounced in mothers than in fathers, however, and contrary to what was expected, this suffering is not correlated with social support, which remains in fact a protective factor by one form of esteem. In conclusion, parents, especially mothers, have more need of social support of esteem and psychological support to report a decrease in the level of stress and a state of much better mental health.

Keywords: Children, Teenagers, Cerebral Palsy, Stress perceived, social support.