The comparison of Educable and Normal Primary Students’ Parents Using Mental Health, Self-esteem and Psychological Well-being Structure in Yazd

Abstract

Introduction: Presence of mentally retarded children in every family affects on the structure and mental health of family specially parents. The purpose of this research is the comparison of the mean of psychological well-being, mental health and self-esteem between parents of normal and educable students. Materials & Methods: This was causal- comparative and retrospective study and the instruments were three questionnaire of self-esteem, public mental health GHQ and psychological well-being. Self-esteem questionnaire is including three scales of academic performance, social evaluation and external evaluation. The GHQ questionnaire is consisted of 28 items while psychological well-being questionnaire include 19 item for life satisfaction, 13 item for happiness and optimism, 8 item for growth and development, 8 item for positive relationship with others and 10 item for autonomy. The results were analysed by SPSS software. Results: This research showed that normal students parents have more psychological well-being than educable students’ parents, moreover two groups of educable and normal students parents are equal in mental health and self-esteem structure and there isn't significant difference between them. Conclusion: This research showed that psychological well-being in educable students’ parents is lower than normal students’ parents. Thus it is suggested that educational organization of exceptional children arrange courses for improving psychological well-being of educable students’ parents.