Stress among Parents having Children with Mental Retardation: A Gender Perspective

Background: Stress reflects very clearly the way of thinking. Stress is a particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being. Objective: To compare the Stress among parents having children with mental retardation in gender perspective. Sample: 40 Samples (20 Father having children with mental retardation and 20 Mothers having children with mental retardation) were included who were qualified the inclusion and exclusion criteria based on Purposive Sampling technique. Design: This is a hospital based cross sectional study. Tool: Parents were evaluated on Perceived Stress Scale. Result: The result revealed that there had significant gender difference found in stress among parents having children with Mental Retardation. Conclusion: There was a significant gender difference found in perceived stress among parents having children with mental retardation which showed high stress in mother compared to father. Keywords: Stress, Parents, Mental Retardation, Gender.