Stres i postawy rodzicielskie matek i ojców osób dorosłych z niepełnosprawnością intelektualną

The aim of the research was to verify whether there exists a relationship between the increase of perceived stress in its various aspects and the parental attitudes of parents of adults with intellectual disabilities as well as a comparison if the relationship also exists among parents of intellectually healthy people. The research used the The Perception of Stress Questionaire by Mieczysław Plopa and Ryszard Makarowski and the Parental Attitudes Scale by Mieczysław Plopa. The research embraced 39 parents of intellectually disabled people and 85 parents of healthy people. The analyses have proven that the parents of the disabled people and of the people without intellectual disabilities with regards to the displayed parental attitudes and the level of the perceived stress. The former are characterized by an intensifi cation of a demanding attitude and a higher level of perceiving the intrapsychic stress which was not observable among the latter. Moreover, differences with regards to the perceived stress have been noticed between the mothers and the fathers of healthy people – the mothers reveal a stronger feeling of emotional tension than the fathers. Similar it proved among the mothers and fathers of intellectually disabled people where it is also mothers who experience stronger emotional tension, intrapsychic and external stress. In the light of the conducted studies a general conclusion may be drawn that the level of the stress perceived by the parents of the people with disabilities is signifi cantly connected with their displayed parental attitudes, namely: protectiveness, inconsequence. In case of the parents of the healthy people such a relationship concerned only the protective attitude.