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PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA

College of Arts and Sciences


Department of Psychology
Parenting Stress and Coping Mechanism: Similarities and Differences
among Mothers and Fathers of Deaf and Mute Children

An Undergraduate Thesis Presented to


The Faculty of College of Arts and Sciences
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa
Poblacion, Muntinlupa City

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree


Bachelor of Science in Psychology

Presented by:
GAILA, JEAN CLARISSE
GAMIT, RODMAN
TAN, MAE DANNALYN TAN
2016

CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA


College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

Introduction
Last 2015, there was a huge roar of triumph on Social Media among the deaf
community worldwide as Tyra Banks announced the winner of Americas Next Top
Model Cycle 22. The winner is Nyle DiMarco, a 26-year old who is the second man
and the first deaf man to win Americas Next Top Model. Nyle was an obvious favorite
from the very beginning of the show. He was able to soar through every challenges,
despite not hearing directions during shoots.
This is one of the few inspiring stories loved by parents of deaf children. To Nyles
mother, the uphill battle of raising a deaf child had finally paid off by his sons
achievement. That is, to be able to function equally as part of the society despite of
the limited comprehension towards people with hearing disabilities. Yet, it is
noteworthy to mention the parenting stress experienced by the parents throughout
the developmental life span of their deaf child. Becoming a parent of a deaf-mute
child is accompanied by stresses of various intensity.
Parents, in particular, as primary caregiver of a deaf and mute child, faces daunting
challenges in the care of the child. In the process, parents undergo difficult times to
overcome the stress and frustrations in its attempt to deal with the terrific feelings that
they are in some way responsible for the childs condition. They also have to bear the

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
ambivalence concerning the cause of the childs disability and have to deal with
childs feelings. Likewise, evidence also shows that parents undergo more than the
average month of stress which usually is not the result of catastrophic events but
rather the consequence of daily responsibilities related to child care (Halbahan and
Kauffman, 2005). At a loss on how to manage the stress they experience, these
parents devise ways to cope.
Understanding the demands of parenting and parents vulnerability to stress
has been the subject of numerous studies in the past. In fact, parenting stress and
coping mechanism of parents has been investigated in many studies specifically in
foreign context. In the Philippine context, there have been scarcely developed studies
that investigated the parenting stress among the mothers of the deaf children. On the
other hand, there has been no research found on the parenting stress and coping
mechanism among fathers of deaf children.
As a result, this study has been constituted to understand the underlying factors
of parenting stress and coping mechanisms among fathers and mothers of deaf and
mute children. The study aims to acquire a better understanding as regards to both
situation of the parents in caring for a deaf-mute child. Furthermore, it aims to unfold
the coping strategies established by the parents in adapting to their childs deafness
which can be essential for new parents that might have the same case. This study

PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA


College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
was designed to be in a comparative-correlational analysis in order to look at the
situation of mothers and fathers separately and thus bring to light any potential sexspecific differences and similarities applicable to coping with a handicap.
Background of the Study
Being a parent is a role that can bring great joy and happiness as well as
challenges to deal with. Parenting is tough, but it is a skill that is often assumed to
naturally exist in parents. It is a wonderful and rewarding experience that takes a lot of
physical and emotional energy. However, it is often accompanied by high level of
stress, because of the difficulties, frustrations, and challenges to parents, for which
they are often not prepared of.
Although parenting stress is a common occurrence, the experience of intense,
frequent, or chronic parenting stress may decrease psychological well-being and
reduce ones ability to raise and manage a child (Anat Zaidman, 2014). As tough as
parenting can be, it becomes even more difficult when children are diagnosed with a
disability whether mental or physical. Raising a child with disability is indeed
challenging under any circumstances. It can impose financial, social and physical
stress on the family (Mak and Ho, 2007). This information comes with a tremendous
blow that results to parenting stress. It has been suggested that the experience of

PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA


College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
stress is related on how the individual perceives the stressful event and whether
coping strategies can be used effectively to manage stress (Mak and Ho, 2007).
Parenting stress is felt in response to the demands of being a parent stress that
is often experienced as negative feelings toward the self and toward the child or
children. The author, Deater-Deckard (2004), defines parenting stress as a set of
processes that lead to aversive psychological and physiological reactions arising from
attempts to adapt to the demands of parenthood.
Today, many children are being identified with a hearing loss specifically
deafness. In the year 2012, there are about 32 million (9%) children in the world with
disabling
hearing loss that has been reported by the World Health Organization. For a parent, it
can be a shattering experience to find out that their child has hearing disability. The
struggle to cope with their emotions and managing their childs life is visible. The vast
array of emotions and stress experienced by parents can have an impact on the child
diagnosed with a hearing loss. On a study of Hintermair (2006), higher levels of
parenting stress have been related to poorer social and emotional development and
higher rates of behavior problems in both deaf and hearing children. Iftikhar and
Yasmeen (2009) studied the parental stress experienced by Pakistani parents of deaf
children. Results of the study postulated that majority of the parents perceived their
children as an economical stressor. In addition, parents reported having a deaf child
increased their worries and caused them anxieties.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Because of increased levels of parental stress brought by caring a deaf child,
parents often look for, develop and use strategies to handle these stresses. According
to Seymour (2013), the outcomes of using such strategies might be in behavioral
appearance such as neglecting responsibilities at home and work, or cognitive
appearance such as weakness in problem-solving or emotional appearance which
includes negative feelings toward the deaf child.
In this regard, Woodman, & Hauser (2013) referred to coping strategies as
continuous change in cognitive and behavioral efforts by individual to handle the
increasing external and/or internal demands of caring the deaf child. Understanding
strategies used by parents to cope with stress of caring a deaf child is considered as a
major component of psycho-social support programs. However, in the study of Singer
(2007), some parents depend on negative strategies to cope with stress which only
increases the parental stress.

In this case, he suggested that different coping

strategies can be established depending on the level of parenting stress.


Given that parents of children with hearing disabilities are vulnerable to parenting
stress, majority of the studies to date were about parenting stress associated with
raising a deaf child have focused on mothers. However, it is not clear whether fathers
experience stress differently to mothers, or whether their experiences are reported
less frequently.
In line with this, the goals of the present study is to first, examine the level of
parenting stress and the coping mechanisms among parents with deaf-mute children.

PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA


College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Second, investigate the relationship of parenting stress and coping mechanisms of the
parents.
Thirdly, examine which parent of a deaf and mute child is more affected by the childs
situation and which has better coping mechanism and lastly, determine whether there
are significant differences between mothers and fathers of deaf-mute children in the
amount of parenting stress and coping mechanism that has been accumulated.
In summary, what we aimed in implementing this study is to identify levels of
parenting stress between mothers and fathers and the coping strategies used by
these parents to handle this stress. It builds upon the previous work that focuses
solely on maternal reports and how their childs hearing disability affected their
parenting stress. However, identifying the parenting stress among fathers will be the
particular focus of this study, as fathers are often underrepresented group within
parenting research. This research aims to increase the knowledge regarding parenting
stress protective factor such as coping mechanism, as this may be an important factor
to consider in interventions. Additionally, most studies focus on parents of children in
early childhood; thus there is a need to understand the challenges parents are
experiencing beyond this period, such as pre-adolescence. This knowledge may help
determine the most effective methods of facilitating change in the family environment
to maximize childrens chances of successful outcomes. Likewise, these insights
would contribute in implementing and evaluating intervention programs that focus on

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
supporting parents and providing parenting stress management for both mothers and
fathers.

Theoretical Framework
This study used Parenting Stress Theory (1992) as a guiding model for the
development of stress among parents, with the addition of Hills ABCX model to fully
understand how the parents adapt to stressful situations. These theoretical
foundations are described as follows;
The Parenting Stress Model
One of the groundbreaking parental stress theorists Richard Abidin, whose
Parenting Stress Theory represents a specific application of stress theory. Abidin
(1992) built on previous parenting models such as Belskys Parenting Process Model
(1984). However, Abidin (1992) thought that Belskys model, although an improvement
on previous stress research, failed to fully capture the parent as thinking, planning and
goal-oriented individual. In 1995, Abidins publication of Parenting Stress Index which
measured parenting stress have marked a significant milestone in the understanding
of this stress.
He then proposed three major domains of parenting stress: parent characteristics,
child characteristics, and situational/life demographics. These domains are reflected in

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Abidins Parenting Stress Index (PSI), which is designed to measure the various
sources and aspects of parental stress (1995).
The first domain, parent characteristics, refers to sources of stress and
problems that may interfere with the parent-child relationship and that are related to
the functioning of the parent. Parental characteristics are factors that have been
described as unique to the parent, with a significant impact on the child-parent
relationship.
The second domain of parenting stress outlined by Abidin, child characteristics
is the source of parental stress associated with unique qualities of the child that may
make parenting more difficult.
The final domain, life stress, relates to stress experienced outside of the childparent relationship. Typically, this stress is related to circumstances outside the
immediate control of the parent, such as poverty, loss of a job, socioeconomic status,
discrimination, and social support.

PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA


College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

Figure 1: Shows the Parenting Stress Mdel containing its three (3) domains.

Hills ABCX Model

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Hill (1949, 1958) as discussed by Fielder, Simpson and Clark (2007) developed a
model that examined factors associated with the familys recovery from the disruptive
effects of stress.

B (Family
Resources)

A (Stressor
Event)

X (Crisis
Event)

C (Familys Definition
of Stressor Event)

Figure 2: Shows Hill's ABCX Model.

The birth of a child with a hearing disability would be A, the stressor event. The
family resources B would include availability of medical care. The definition of stressor
event C might be the situation is unmanageable because the familys resources are
not enough to meet the medical demands of the child. This situation would produce X,
the crisis. The ABCX model considers the interaction between B and C and how they
affect X. Factors B and C dictates how the family, especially the parents cope with the
stressful event.

PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA


College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Conceptual Framework

Level of
Parenting Stress

Level of
Coping
Mechanism

Mother
Father

Research results will


indicate that there is no
significant difference and
no significant
relationship between
Parenting Stress and
Coping Mechanism
among Mothers and
Fathers of deaf-mute

Figure 1 illustrates the research paradigm of this study.

The level of parenting stress and coping mechanism among mothers and fathers
of deaf-mute children will be evaluated through employing stringent statistical methods
in finding out their difference and if such relationship exists between these two
variables. The inferences derived from this process will be attested through the
research hypothesis provided in this study.

Statement of the Problem


This research study aims to determine and examine the Parenting Stress and
Coping Mechanism: Similarities and Differences between Mothers and Fathers
of Deaf-Mute Children.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Specifically, it will answer the following questions;
1. What is the Demographical Profile of the parents when grouped according to :
A. Mother
B. Father
2. What is the level of Parenting Stress of the respondents?
3. What is the level of Coping Mechanisms of the respondents?
4. Is there a significant difference of Parenting Stress and Coping Mechanisms
between Mothers and Fathers having a deaf-mute child?
5. Is there a significant relationship between Parenting Stress and Coping
Mechanism of parents having a deaf-mute child?

Hypothesis
There are two hypotheses for this study such as follows;
Hypothesis 1: There will be no significant difference between Parenting Stress and
Coping Mechanisms among Mothers and Fathers of deaf-mute children.
Hypothesis 2: There is no significant relationship between Parenting Stress and
Coping Mechanism among Mothers and Fathers of deaf-mute children.

Scope and Delimitation


The present study is only delimited into two variables namely, parenting stress
and coping mechanism. The sample of this study will be limited to accessible,

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
biological parents of deaf-mute children in Manila. The parents of the deaf and mute
children had to live with, provide care for and raise the child.
All of the deaf children must be classified as not less than 6 years of age and not
more than 12 years of age since this is considered as the most distressing age of the
child for the parents. Thus, children must be diagnosed with having a severe to
profound hearing loss. The study will be limited on 30 set of parents, where both of
the parents (mother and father) will get to answer the questionnaires provided by the
researchers.
Since the study will be in a comparative and correlational approach which will
merely demonstrates the association between variables (parenting stress and coping
mechanism), causational findings will not be implied. Most importantly, since the study
will only involve specific group of people, it is uncertain whether the correlational
findings will generalize other situations or people using the same variables.
Significance of the Study
This study will be undertaken to find out the level of parenting stress and coping
mechanism among parents of deaf-mute children. Thus, this section of the research
study will provide information regarding the possible benefits or contributions on
various areas such as follows;

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Parents of Deaf and Mute Children. Parents are the most deeply affected
among the members of the family by the childs hearing deficiency.
This research contains information that is essential to parents especially the stressful
demands posed by raising a deaf-mute child. With this research they will be able to
gain knowledge towards their emotions and the cause of their behavioral actions. This
will serve as a supplementary knowledge among parents in which they might find
helpful in coping such stresses in rearing their child. Most importantly, the data
gathered from this study can influence them to seek help and avail themselves of
services that would address their needs.
Agency & Organizations. This study aims to benefit various public and private
agencies, organizations, institutions and support groups, especially the Philippine
Federation of the Deaf and Philippine School for the Deaf. These agencies and
groups are dedicated to cater educational, emotional and psychological support to
families of children with hearing disabilities as well as to other families with special
children. This study hopes to provide them inputs for the information campaign
towards positive changes in the life of families and individuals who have children with
hearing disabilities and other special children.
Future Researchers. This investigation will pave way for them to explore this
aspect of Exceptional Psychology which have not been explored widely by other

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
researchers. Likewise, this will also enrich this field of study in terms of enhancing
information about parenting stress and coping mechanism. The findings of this study
will demonstrate results regarding issues faced by most parents of deaf and mute
children. This study hopes to serve as an inspiration to future researchers in
developing researches dedicated in building stable and meaningful parent-child
relationship that will enable children with hearing disabilities gain self-confidence and
actualize their innate potentials to become productive and successful individuals. In
line with this, this research study will help future researchers whose area of choice is
parental involvement in deaf child rearing. Future research inclined to this study may
use larger samples to incorporate a broader range of potential stressors to determine
which factors are most likely to contribute to the increased stress experience by
parents of deaf and mute children.
SPED Teachers, Counselors and Mental Health Professionals. Parents are
subject to the inherent chronic stressors of parenting most especially when a child is
diagnosed with an impaired hearing ability. All of the attention is focused on helping
the child not minding that parents also need assistance in coping with stress.
Therefore, this present study will exhibit a thorough understanding and awareness
about the

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
parents experienced difficulty in rearing a deaf and mute child. Not only that, this
study will exhibit how such parents manage to cope with the stress they experience in
rearing their child. In this regard, parents of deaf and mute children may find comfort
in the presence of the SPED teachers, counselors with collaboration of mental health
professionals who might come up with intervention practices in order to enlighten
parents on the proper care and treatment appropriate to their child. The information
provided in this study will serve as a basis for developing appropriate approaches to
parenting stress.
Community. Deaf and mute children should not be excluded from the society
and so are their parents. This research study will be essential in terms of broadening
the understanding towards the deaf community especially those who have had little to
no contact with deaf individuals. A strong support system from the community will
empower parents in raising their deaf child to become functional individuals in the
society.

Definition of Terms
The following terms were used in this study;
Coping Mechanism: group of efforts or cognitive and behavioral activities an
individual uses to handle stressful situation in order to reduce internal and external

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
demands associated with this situation, in an attempt to re-gain state of psychological
equilibrium individual used to live before. For the purpose of the current study, coping
strategies are expressed by score obtained on Coping Strategies Inventory.
Deaf-mute Children: Children who are diagnosed with a profound congenital
deafness and is unable to use articulate language. For the purpose of the current
study, deaf -mute children refers to children with hearing loss (severe to profound
diagnosis) and deafness whom have no accompanied other physical or mental
disabilities.
Parents: the deaf-mute childs mother or father.
Parenting Stress: unpleasant conscious emotional experience perceived by parents
when a state of imbalance raise between demands and resources which restrict them
from achieving expected tasks, and requires to use their capabilities and resources to
handle this situation, and to have major changes in life style, which may lead to
feelings of anxiety, depression, anger, helplessness, sadness, and fatigue. For the
purpose of the current study, levels of stress are expressed by score obtained on
Parenting Stress Index

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
This chapter presents related literatures, studies and readings which are relevant
to the research study. The researchers has gone through intensive readings of
materials, taken from libraries, resource centers (see referral letters provided on the
appendices) and from the internet both foreign and local which contain facts and
information on the research problem at hand. It also provides synthesis between
previous researches and the present work.
Related Literature
Researchers have explored how a childs disability affects the lives of their
parents. Most of them dwelt on the negative effects of childhood disability on family
life, highlighting parental sorrow, marital discord and family instability (Murphy &
Levine, 2007). Stress has been a common topic among scholars who are looking into
the effects of a childs disability on the family, especially the parents.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
There are over 90% of children with severe to profound hearing losses that are
born to normally hearing families (Deaf Child Worldwide, 2015).

According to Wolf (2005), deafness is a multi-faceted and vast physical,


psychological and linguistic phenomenon.
Hearing loss can mean a range of difficulty. Parents become emotional upon
knowing that their child has hearing disability. On a book of Marschark (2007), parents
unfamiliar with deafness will have particular challenges in raising their deaf children,
and they will vary widely in how they respond to the situation. Some will take the
initiative and become active in fostering their childrens development, spending extra
time with them on school work, language skills, and in play. Those parents will do
whatever they need to do in order ensure that they have effective communication with
their deaf child beginning with the identification of hearing loss or soon afterwards. On
the contrary, some of the parents become in denial in the beginning and blame
themselves a lot upon knowing the childs deafness. They go into a lot of guilt and
then later, they go into shock and depression. (Jamica Gleaner, 2009).
Parents are said to go through stages of grief and acceptance upon finding out
their childs case. First, the denial stage, where parents may deny the fact that their
child has a hearing loss.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

Most of the time, this stage show clearly when parents insist that their child can
communicate verbally or through sign language, or when the child will be wellmatched to a better communication or learning. Second, the anxiety stage where
parents learn things about their children, being of a slow learner and worry so much
about their childs future, academic abilities and capability of being employed. Thirdly,
the stage of depression, where parents tend to ask and blames themselves for their
childs disabling condition. Fourth, the stage of anger, where parents start to think that
its not fair for them to have a child with the kind of disability and that they do not
deserve to have one. Fifth, the guilt stage where parents may feel that their childs
hearing loss is the result of something that they did, lack thereof. Lastly, the
acceptance stage where at this point, parents learn about their childs deafness.
They become acquainted with others in the deaf community, and see that their child
could live a normal and fulfilling life (Berke, Jamie, 2009).
The authors of the book entitled, Multicultural Perspectives in Working with
Families, the general reaction that parents experience when they learn about their
childs deafness or hearing impairment is a grief reaction, similar to mourning process.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Therapy should therefore be aimed at alleviating these acute symptoms, and should
be planned to be short term. Cognitive-based and analytic therapies should be only
used with more verbal and highly educated parents, whereas therapies that are more
empathic and behavior oriented should be used with parents who are less verbal,
analytical, and educated. Support groups would be most needed for parents who lack
ready access to their extended families and friends. In summary, the coping modalities
of parents are characterized as both unique and distinct in sociocultural groups.
(Congress et al., 2005). Therefore, these modalities must be used as a basis for
creating a treatment plan that would be both culturally sensitive and specific to the
unique needs of each particular parent.
Related Studies
The following are the researchers efforts to collate the data on the
stressful effects of parenting stress according to; psychological, emotional, and
communication aspects among parents of children with hearing disability. The studies
comprise of both local and foreign context that plays an important contribution in the
understanding of this present study.
Much of the available studies discusses the problems that parents who have
children with disabling hearing condition report regarding how their childs condition
affect their psychological and emotional functioning.

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College of Arts and Sciences
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Foreign Studies
Numerous problems confront parents of deaf children. They face greater
challenges that make it necessary for them to be involved in extra ordinary care giving
routines and specialized help and services (Carney, 2006). These problems lead to
parenting stress and family functioning is especially compromised (Dyson, 2005).
Higher demands are placed on parents with deaf children, particularly on their time
and resources (Forgays et al., 2005).
A study reported that stressors of mothers of deaf children include diagnosis of
hearing loss, learning communication method, more involvement in decision making
and increased contact with professionals from various disciplines, and especially the
everyday experiences of having a child who communicates in a different and
complicated manner.

Deaf parents may be more accepting of hearing loss, adept at visual communication
and sensitive to the needs of deaf children (Marschark, et al., 2006).
Hearing loss make parents feel awkward and deal with their grief by investing a
lot of time with the deaf child in an attempt to make it a positive experience. The more
anxiety a parent feels, the more time they spend with the deaf child (Bat-Chava &

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Martin, 2005). This is common for mothers of deaf and hard of hearing children, in
that, they experience higher stress levels and have a harder time adjusting
emotionally (Quittner, Jackson & Glueckauf, 2007).
First time parents of deaf children lack sufficient information in dealing with
hearing loss, that they are often led to deal with inept, inaccurate, and ill-timed
professional advice. In addition to these encounters, parents also find difficulty in
accepting their childs exceptionality and experience emotional and financial tension
(Price & Addision, 2009). Licht (2010) also said that parents have feelings of social
isolation, embarrassment and foresee a potential loss of family and community
assistance.
Misinterpretations occur when parents do not learn how to communicate with
their children. Troubling cases are those where adults say one thing and incorrectly
sign something else.
The child fails to understand what is intended and erroneous information is
presented (Mackay-Soroka et al., 2011).
An exploratory study conducted by Asberg, Vogel and Bowers (2007) indicated
that all families with deaf children, experience communication breakdowns which
cause stress among parents. Therefore, mode of communication used between
parents and the child may be a predictor of stress.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Local Studies
A qualitative study entitled, Lived Experiences of Mothers in Caring for
their Deaf and Mute Child, revealed that most of the initial reactions of the mothers are
sadness and pity for their childs conditions which results to have a harder time
accepting the childs situation. Furthermore, mothers used coping mechanisms
through accepting the truth and believing that there are reasons why they were given
a child with disability. Respondents reported that they receive support from other
members of the family which helped them in coping up with the childs disability
(Nahial et al., 2011).
Panko (2005) stressed that as the head of the family structure, parents affect
relationships between siblings indirectly. The more accepting they are about their
childs hearing loss, the more accepting the siblings will be. These positive
relationships will be beneficial to child and his or her future. Communication will more
likely not so much be a barrier to the child and this helps him or her academically or
socially.
According to the study of Molina (2010), hearing parents of deaf children will
either resort to being overprotective of their children or neglect their children because
of the language barrier between them. The study is divided into two stages: the first
stage aims to get a better understanding on the world of the deaf, while the second

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
stage focuses on the formulation of an effective communication campaign for forging
linkages with this group. Using the campaign model of Nowak and Warneryd, the
campaign features activities carried out over a one-year period with the intended effect
of introducing sign language in barangay Greater Lagro, before expanding the
program to other areas.
Synthesis
In summary, the literature and studies reviewed has been collected from various
authors who studied the effects of children with hearing disability on their parents.
These parents were described to have experienced problems in the different areas of
lives.

Psychologically, they showed high levels of stress as they endured emotional crises..
Some of these studies even pointed out parental disadvantage in the area of their
social life.
On the other hand, it is noteworthy to mention that the available literature
only focuses according to the mothers perspectives. And that, local studies about
hearing impairment and families specifically cases of deafness appeared to be scarce
and underdeveloped. Furthermore, it seems that mothers have been studied in the
area of parenting a child with hearing disability. As seen in the method used by

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
researchers, mothers are the common respondents when the goal of the study was to
look into the family members reactions towards the childs disabling condition,
outweighing the fathers. Mothers seem to be interviewed more because of their
convenience and the bond between them which makes the mothers reliable sources
of data. They spend most of their time with the child; therefore they know their child
more than any member of the family. Compared to the fathers, who are mostly
breadwinners of the family and spend most of their waking hours outside the home
trying to work and provide for the family. There have been few efforts to look into
parental aspects, with most of the available literature coming from west contributing to
the failure of studies on family to include the fathers. This study fills in the missing gap
among the collated researches by considering both sides of the parents to be under
studied.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
This chapter will be dedicated to the description of the methods and procedures
that will be done in order to obtain the data, how they will be analyzed, interpreted,
and how the conclusion will be met. This section is to justify the means in which the
study was obtained and will help in giving it purpose and strength as it will then be
truthful and analytical. All these will help in the processing of the data and the
formulation of conclusions. Specifically, this chapter deals with the methods of
research that will be used in the present study, the sample and sampling technique,

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College of Arts and Sciences
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the research and validation of instrument, and the statistical treatment of data which
will be further explained later on.
Research Design
This study will employ a descriptive-correlational method design which includes
integration of a quantitative approaches, as recently seen in the modern research. The
descriptive research method is aimed at casting light on current issues or problems
through a process of data collection that enables to describe the situation more
completely (Fox, 2007).
In its essence, the researchers chose a descriptive kind of research method to
describe parenting stress and coping mechanism among mothers and fathers of deafmute children. The study will be in a quantitative approach specifically a correlational
method since the sole purpose for this study is to find out whether or not parenting
stress and coping mechanism covariates. Then inferential statistical measure called ttest will be used to know if there are any significance for difference between two
groups. In this study, the researchers aim to look at whether mothers and fathers have
the same level of parenting stress and coping mechanism or is it in other way around.
Respondents of the Study
The respondents of the study will be the biological parents of deaf and mute
children. The parents of the deaf-mute child had to live with, provide care for and raise

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
the child. All of the deaf-mute children must be classified as not less than 6 years of
age and not more than 12 years of age since this is considered as the most
distressing time for the parents.

Thus, deaf-mute children must be classified as

having a severe to profound hearing loss. The respondents for this study will compose
of 30 qualified set of parents where both mothers and fathers will answer
questionnaires provided by the researchers.
A permission to conduct a study will be obtained from the school principals, head
of the organization and from the parents. The names of the parents will be withheld for
confidentiality purposes.
Sampling Technique
A purposive sampling method will be used in the selection of the respondents in
this study. In this regard, the respondents for this study will be based on the criteria set
by the researchers such that the respondents within the population sample will have
meaning for the data that will be gathered.
Research Instruments
In this study, the respondents will be given of questionnaires to fill in. This
questionnaires

will

be

the

main

data-gathering

instrument.

The

research

questionnaires will be comprised of two sets namely--- Parental Stress Scale and
Coping Health Inventory for Parents, where both aimed to measure the parenting

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
stress and coping mechanisms among parents. Each set of questionnaire sheets will
contain a section intended to know the demographical information of the parents such
as the gender. The names of the parents will be withheld for confidentiality purposes.

Parental Stress Scale (PSS)


This is an assessment tool designed to measure the level of stress parents
experience as a result of having children (Berry & Jones, 1995: Wntr, 2005). It
consists of18 items that describe the parent-child relationship and the parent's feelings
regarding it. Parents respond by indicating the extent to which they agree or disagree
with the statement. A Likert-type scale is used, with 1 indicating a strong disagreement
and 5 indicating a strong agreement. Both positive and negative items are included,
which allows the instrument to assess stress by weighing the negative impact of
parenting against the benefits it may provide. Although the scale's developers did not
provide detailed information about the intended population or the length of time
necessary for administration, the Parental Stress Scale was described as appropriate
for both mothers and fathers and for parents of children with and without clinical
problems, and it is brief and easy to administer and score.
Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP)

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
This is among the popular and a well-organized instrument to measure parental
coping patterns. It was developed in 1983 and it consists of a 45-item measure of a
parents response to managing demands when a child has a serious or chronic
medical
condition (Apa.org, 2016).

The CHIP comprises of three subscales (dimensions)

measuring three different coping patterns; a. maintaining family integration,


cooperation, and an optimistic definition of the situation; b. maintaining social support,
self-esteem, and psychological stability; and c. understanding the healthcare situation
through communication with other parents and consultation with the healthcare team.
Response format for this is a Likert-type scale (0 = not helpful; 1= minimally helpful;
2= moderately helpful; 3= extremely helpful).
Validation of Instruments
The following instruments to be used in this study has undergone screening of
psychometric properties. This is to ensure whether instruments will measure what it is
supposed to measure (validity) and consistently measure what it is intended to
measure (reliability).
Parental Stress Scale
The standardization sample used in the development of the Parental Stress
Scale consisted of two groups of parents of typically developing children. The first

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
group included 125 parents with a mean age of 34.4 years and a mean education
level of 15.5 years. The group was 91% Caucasian. The second group was made up
of 233 parents, with a mean age of 36.8.
Fifty percent of the group had college degrees and 95% were Caucasian. In the
reliability studies performed with the standardization sample, reliability was described
as adequate, with a coefficient alpha of 0.83. Test-retest reliability was also examined
and found to be 0.81 when the scale was re-administered after a 6-week period. When
possible, the scale was administered to both parents in a household and their scores
were examined for possible gender-related differences; however, no significant
differences were found. Tests of the scale's validity were performed with the
standardization sample and several independent samples, during which Berry and
Jones (1995) discovered that scores on the Parental Stress Scale were significantly
correlated with scores on other measurements of stress, such as the Perceived Stress
Scale (PSS) and the Parenting Stress Index (PSI). In addition, scores on the Parental
Stress Scale effectively discriminated between the parents of typically developing
children and parents of children with developmental delays and disabilities, as well as
children with behavior problems. The validity of the scale was also assessed by
comparing it to measures of emotion, social support, and role satisfaction, with the
results indicating that the scores on the Parental Stress Scale were significantly

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
correlated with the results on the additional measures (Berry & Jones).

An apparent strength of the scale lies in its ability to isolate and examine the
stress that occurs as a result of the parenting role, without confounding those results
with marital, financial, or other general life stress.
Coping Health Inventory for Parents
The Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP) was designed to measure
parental coping patterns. This 45-item questionnaire is a valid and reliable measure by
which parents rate their perception of how useful certain coping behaviors are by way
of a four-point Likert scale from not helpful (0) to extremely helpful (3). These coping
behaviors are grouped into three patterns. The first coping pattern is Maintaining
family integration, cooperation, and an optimistic definition of the situation (19 items,
maximum score = 57), which refers to, for example parents participating in activities
with other family members or getting other family members to help with chores and
tasks at home. The second coping pattern is Maintaining social support, self esteem,
and psychological stability (18 items, maximum score = 54), which refers to, for
example parents getting away from the home care tasks and responsibilities for some
relief or talking to someone about how they feel. The third coping pattern is

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Understanding the medical situation through communication and consultation with
healthcare professionals
(8 items, maximum score = 24), which refers to, for example parents talking with
healthcare professionals (nurse, physician, occupational therapist, physiotherapist,
social worker, etc.) concerning their child's condition. The higher the score the more
useful the particular type of coping pattern. The internal consistency of this tool is
good with Cronbach alphas of 0.79; 0.79; 0.71 for each pattern, respectively. The
CHIP has fair concurrent validity and correlates with the Family Empowerment Scales
(Cavallo, 2009: McCubbin, 1983).
Procedures of Data Gathering
Permission to conduct the study trough administration of letter approval to the
school principal and/or organization secretary. Once the letter has been approved,
parents who will be qualified to participate in the study will be oriented about the
research and its benefits. Then, administration of the questionnaires unto the
respondents will be followed, giving them ample time to finish answering. After which,
the researcher will collect the questionnaires and will be subject for tabulation.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

Statistical Treatment of Data


The study will be treated using descriptive and inferential statistics. A computer
software called Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) will be utilized to
determine the precise interpretation of the results in a short period of time. SPSS will
take the data from the present research and use them to generate descriptive and
inferential statistical analysis. Matrix tables will be employed to organize, summarize,
and analyze the data gathered for an explicit presentation of results. Data will be
collated, tabulated and analyzed. The following statistical measures will be used for
the study:
Frequency and Percentage Distribution. Frequency distributions will be used
in order to summarize and compress the data by grouping it according to
demographical information taken from the parents. These raw numbers will be
converted into percentages to provide a more vivid description of the data.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Arithmetic Mean. More commonly known as the average is the sum of the
scores from each questionnaire divided by the number of respondents. The mean is
useful in determining the overall trend of a data set or providing a rapid snapshot of
the gathered data. The mean score will serve as a central value of a discrete set of
scores taken from the two questionnaires.
T-Test for two sample groups. The researchers will use t-test to determine
whether there is a statistically significant difference between levels of parenting stress
and coping mechanism among mothers and fathers of deaf and mute children.
Moreover, the basic principle of this statistical measure is to test the hypothesis, which
means the reality between two groups (male and female parents). Therefore, t-test
decides whether the difference between the male and female parents is considered as
significant or not-- by means of determining how much the difference between the two
groups and how much overlap is there between the two groups.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Pearsons Correlation Coefficient. This statistical measure aims to determine
the statistical relationship between two variables (in the study, variables are parenting
stress and coping mechanism). The researchers ought to find out whether there is an
existing association between the presented variables of interest through getting the
magnitude of correlation as well as the direction of the relationship.

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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
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College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

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PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA


College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
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