Abstract:

The aim of the study was to compare the stress and life satisfaction levels of parents of children with special needs and parents of children with healthy development. The study group of the study consists of 265 parents selected by convenience sampling method, 117 of whom have special needs and 148 children with typical development, studying in different special education and rehabilitation centers in Erzurum. Data from the study group were obtained using the parent stress scale and the life satisfaction scale. The scores that parents received from the stress and life satisfaction scales were analyzed by applying a t-test for independent samples. After that the effect values of the resulting t-test results were calculated. Compared to the stress scores between the two groups, the stress scores of parents of children with special needs were higher than those of parents in the other group, and the life satisfaction scores were lower. As a result of the effect value calculation performed to determine the size of the difference between the groups, stress and life satisfaction were found to have a high level of impact on the parents. Based on the findings of the research, it was suggested that similar studies should be carried out with larger study groups, and descriptive and experimental studies in which parents were compared.

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