Emotional well-being and social support as important factors affecting the quality of life of parents of a child with cerebral palsy

Abstract

The birth of a child with cerebral palsy is an enormous challenge for the parents which has a direct impact on their quality of life. Therefore, we believe it is important to pay attention to this topic. To that end, we conducted research on the quality of life of parents of children with cerebral palsy in 2018. To achieve our goal, we applied quantitative research strategy and used a valid research tool, i.e. a standardized quality of life questionnaire – Family Quality of Life Scale ("FQOL"). The average score reached by respondents was 94.0918 points which indicates a higher quality of life in respondents than expected. The evaluation of the average score for each dimension of the scale showed that respondents scored the lowest in the "Emotional Well-Being" dimension (13.2551 points) and "Social Support" (15.6429 points). The research further confirmed that there were statistically significant differences in the quality of life of respondents depending on their age (t = -2.341, p = 0.021), marital status (F = 3.476, p = 0.019) and the territorial region (χ2 = 15.39, p = 0.031). A statistically significant relationship between the quality of life of respondents and the age of the child with cerebral palsy (0.288 **, p = 0.004) was confirmed. Despite a relatively high score that indicated a higher quality of life in respondents, the research identified two areas in which parents of children with cerebral palsy had a lower quality of life, namely, their emotional well-being and social support.

Keywords

• Cerebral palsy
• Informal carers
• Quality of life of parents
• Emotional well-being
• Social support.