Quality of Life of Parents of Children with Intellectual Disabilities in Croatia

The goal of the present study was to examine the quality of life (QOL) of parents of children with intellectual disability. An additional goal was to examine the effects of gender and educational status on the QOL of these parents. The sample for this study consisted of 50 parents of children with intellectual disabilities and 50 parents of children without disabilities as a control group. As A measure of QOL, we used Family Quality of Life Survey. Results have shown that there is a statistically significant difference between the perceived QOL of parents of children with intellectual disabilities and parents of typically developing children. The effects of gender and educational status on QOL of parents of children with intellectual disabilities were also statistically significant. However, there were no interaction effects of gender and educational status on the QOL. Given the lower QOL of parents of children with intellectual disability, it is important to provide them with support programs in order to improve their QOL. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2017.v7n2p43