Examining Distress of Parents of Children With and Without Special Needs

This study was designed to examine differences between parents of children with special needs and parents of children without special needs in levels of distress and community resource engagement. There were 29 participants. No significant differences were found between the two groups with respect to individual and marital distress, but parents of children with special needs had significantly more engagement with community resources. When analyzing parent total visits (PTV) and child total visits (CTV), the CTV for parents of children with special needs averaged just over 50 visits for a six-month period compared to 0.29 for the comparison group. Implications for practice, such as use of transdisciplinary teams, and for future research are discussed.