Parenting Stress and Physical Abuse Against Children with Disabilities

Abstract

Children with disabilities often experience physical violence committed by caregivers. This study aims to identify the relationship between stress in caring for physical violence committed against children with disabilities. The study used a cross-sectional design to examine 76 parents with children with disabilities selected by convenience sampling techniques. Of the 76 participants, 35 (46.1%) parents physically abused children with disabilities. The most common type of violence is hitting (74.3%). Parenting stress may be felt by parents because there is a relationship between caregiving stress with physical violence (Z = -2.85; p-value = 0.004). Lack of access to information related to adaptive care makes parents in Indonesia still consider physical violence, such as hitting children, is a natural thing. The research concludes that there is a relationship between parental stress and physical violence against children with disabilities. Health workers are expected to be able to teach parents how to improve coping mechanisms to reduce parenting stress so that parenting behaviour becomes adaptive.