Abstract

Although the birth of a child is a turning point for individuals in the entire family system, the most basic expectation of families is to have a healthy child. Regardless of the degree and diagnosis, learning that the child has special needs is accepted as a traumatic process that affects all the dynamics in the family. The feelings, thoughts, behaviors and living spaces of the family members can all be adversely affected by the diagnosis of the child. In order to examine the relationship between the psychological well-being of parents with children with special needs and their burden of caregiving, a quantitative research type descriptive and cross-sectional screening model was used in this study, which examines the relationship between two or more variables. The research sample consisted of 135 parents with children with special needs, 15.6% (21) male and 84.4% (114) female. Informed Voluntary Consent Form, Sociodemographic Information Form, Psychological Well-being Scales (PIOÖ) Short Form, Zarit Caregiving Burden Scale were applied to the participants. As a result of the analysis of the obtained data, a significant negative relationship was found between the perceived care burden of the parents and their psychological well-being. Another result of the study is that the Psychological Well-being levels of the participants differed according to gender. Compared to men, women's psychological well-being levels were found to be higher.

Keywords: Psychological Well-Being, Burden of Care, Parent, Child with Disabled