This study has the purpose to measure parenting stress of women with disabilities and to analyze empirically the effects of social support on the parenting stress. The subjects sampled are the disabled women raising children aged 3 to 18 years old in Jeonbuk province.
This research was done using purposive sampling method and snowball sampling method with the help of welfare centers for the disabled and related Organizations at cities and counties in Jeonllabuk-do.
Data were collected for nine months from 23 February to 20 November in 2020 under Covid-19 situdation which had closed facilities for the disabled and had hampered contact with those surveyed. During this period, a total of 151 questionaires were collected and 150 copies except one unfaithful response were used for analysis.
The main research results confirmed in this study are summarized as follows.
First form the results of the analysis on the independent variable of this study? the effect of social support on the parenting stress of disables women, as with the results of previous studies, this study also indentified that social support plays on important role in parenting stress.
Second, as a result of analyzing the effect of family support independent of social support, it was confirmed that the husband’s participation in child rearing had a major effect on the reduction of parenting stress of women with disabilities.
Third, it was confirmed that social support had a major effect on reducing the parenting stress of women with disabilities even in situdation where family support was controlled, Therefore, in order for women with disabilities to fulfill their maternal role smoothly, it is necessary to prepare active and practical policy measures to enhance social support.
Fourth, child support expense was confirmed to be a major influencing factor on parenting stress of women with disabilities, along with social support and family support.
In both the regression analysis models, the monthly child support expense per child was found to have a consistently significant effect on parenting stress, confirming that the burden of child support is a major stressor in the child-rearing process of women with disabilities.
In order to alleviate the burden of childrearing of women with disabilities, measures to support childrearing are needed to improve the economic level of households with the disabled.
Fifth, social support and family support showed a high correlation. households with less social support tend to have less family support. Therefore, policy support needs to be strengthened to help disabled women.
Thus, I tried to find a policy and practical implications that can reduce the parenting stress of women with disabilities.
social effors to increase opportunities for disabled women to participate in society and improvements to the childcare support system to facilitate institutional access to parenting, both of them are needed.
The fact that evaluative support among social supports has a significant effect on the parenting stress of women with disabilities means that efforts are needed to change the perception of disabled women in our society, such as improving social prejudice and discrimination against raising children of women with disabilities.
In addition, the husband''s support for child rearing shows that, like non-disabled women, a cooperative relationship with the husband is important for women with disabilities in raising children.
In addition, it is necessary to improve the residential environment for women with disabilities to raise children, and to prepare measures to alleviate the burden of monthly child support paid by low-income families with disabilities.