Resilience and stigma in mothers of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties

Forgiveness and well-being in mothers of children with disabilities

OBJECTIVE

To examine the correlations between forgiveness and well-being in mothers of children with disabilities, considering the moderating role of contextual factors.

BACKGROUND

Well-being in mothers of children with disabilities is associated with coping with the numerous and unique challenges of motherhood. These are often accompanied by a sense of guilt, harm, and shame. Forgiveness can play an important role in lowering these negative emotions.

METHOD

The research was conducted with 174 mothers of children with disabilities, using the Emotional Forgiveness Scale; the Decision to Forgive Scale; and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. Contextual factorssuch as: severity of transgression, apology, and the quality of the relationship with the offender were also measured. Moderation analyses were used to examine the associations between the variables.

RESULTS

Decisional and emotional forgiveness correlated positively with well-being. Contextual factors moderated only the relationship between emotional forgiveness and well-being. Severity of the transgression and apology had a moderating effect in the case of the Presence of positive emotions, and relationship quality in the case of Reduction of negative emotions.

CONCLUSIONS

The well-being of mothers of children with disabilities is associated with both decisional and emotional forgiveness. Contextual factors are an important moderator of the relationship between emotional forgiveness and well-being in these mothers.

IMPLICATIONS

Information about the importance of the relationship between forgiveness and well-being can be used to design therapeutic programs and programs supporting mothers of children with disabilities in coping with difficulties and achieving well-being. Such programs can incorporate, for example, forgiveness training.

Families under pressure: A qualitative study of stressors in families of children with congenital heart disease

The objective of this study was to better understand the stressors in families of children with congenital heart disease (CHD) to assist with formulating targeted stress management plans for such families. A descriptive qualitative study was undertaken at a tertiary referral hospital in China. Following purposeful sampling, interviews were conducted with 21 parents of children with CHD regarding the stressors in their families. Following content analysis, 11 themes were generated from the data and categorised into six main domains: the initial stressor and associated hardships, normative transitions, prior strains, the consequences of family efforts to cope, intrafamily and social ambiguity, and sociocultural values. The 11 themes include confusion regarding the disease, hardships encountered during treatment, the heavy financial burden, the unusual growth track of the child due to the disease, normal events becoming abnormal for the family, impaired family functioning, family vulnerability, family resilience, family boundary ambiguity induced by role alteration, a lack of knowledge about community support and family stigma. Various and complex stressors exist for families of children with CHD. Medical personnel should fully evaluate the stressors and take targeted measures before implementing family stress management practices. It is also necessary to focus on the posttraumatic growth of families of children with CHD and strengthen resilience. Moreover, family boundary ambiguity and a lack of knowledge about community support should not be ignored, and further research is needed to explore these variables. Most importantly, policymakers and healthcare providers should adopt a range of strategies to address the stigma of being in a family of a child with CHD.