Social support and acceptance of the disease by parents of children who have progressive muscular dystrophy

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship in the parents among social support, psychological stress response, and acceptance of the fact that their children had progressive muscular dystrophy. Parents of progressive muscular dystrophy patients, 326 in total, completed a questionnaire that included scales of social support, acceptance of muscular dystrophy, positive thought on child's muscular dystrophy, and psychological stress response. Results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that features of the social support received by the parents differed at different stages of the disease, but levels of acceptance of the disease and psychological stress response were not different. Results of analysis of covariance structure suggested that social support increased parent's positive cognition about the disease, the cognition in turn increased their acceptance of the disease, and the acceptance reduced psychological stress responses. Finally, social support systems that were available to the parents of children with muscular dystrophy were discussed.