Parents of mentally retarded children: Personality characteristics and psychological problems

This study was designed to assess the personality characteristics and psychological problems of parents of mentally retarded children. Seventy six parents, whose mean age was 42.12 yr with SD 10.15. 38 of mentally retarded and 38 of normal children, were investigated. A Bengali version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was used to measure the psychoticism, neuroticism and extraversion-introversion responses of the parents. Results showed that parents of mentally retarded children had significantly higher scores only on the neuroticism scale, indicating that they were more emotionally unstable than the parents of normal children. The findings were discussed in terms of certain constraining factors associated with having a mentally retarded child. Counseling programmes for these parents should take into account these factors.