PARENTAL SATISFACTION WITH LIFE AND PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT OF PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between satisfaction with life and perceived social support of parents having children with Intellectual Disabilities. For this purpose, 66 parents were approached. The present study was conducted in different special schools located in Karachi. Initially, permission was taken from the authorites of the organizations, further, participants were informed about the consent containing information regarding the purpose of the research including confidentiality and their right to withdraw from the research at any time. Subsequently, the researcher asked them to fill the Demographic Sheet followed by Satisfaction With Life Scale and Multidimensional Social Support Scale. Results indicate that satisfaction which is person's personal evaluation of self is related to the support that they perceive from others. Support gives us relief and work as an asset when someone is in a stipulation of dissatisfaction. Furthermore, supplimentary results reflect that social support is a predictor of satisfaction among parents. When parents perceive that they are getting support from society, they would be satisfied with their lives and when they perceive that they are not supported by the society, they would be dissatisfied. The identification of underlying factors generates the findings to bring the fact to light that ample attention should be paid to the aspect of parents' emotional and social life so that they might be able to control their emotional weakness and which will help them to provide a healthier atmosphere at home to their children and family as well.