Brittni Carr, Brigham Young University
Health
Purpose/Aims: To examine religiosity and family hardiness in parents raising children with disabilities (CWD) to determine if there are differences according to parent gender and type of disability and if there is a relationship between the variables.
Background: Public religiosity refers to what one does to worship outside the home. Private religiosity refers to what one does in one’s own home. Family hardiness, considers whether the family is downtrodden when faced with difficulties. Religiosity and hardiness may be especially important for families raising a CWD; however, there is little information on how these variables are linked in families raising CWD.
Methods: After obtaining IRB approval and parental consent, 223 families raising children with autism, Down syndrome, other disabilities, multiple disabilities (both physical and intellectual) or typically developing children independently completed the 20 item Family Hardiness Index, and a 13 item public and private religiosity scale. Mothers also completed a demographic questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, correlations, and regressions were used in analyzing data.
Results: Mothers’ religiosity was significantly higher than fathers’ scores. Differences were noted according to type of disability. Mothers’ and fathers’ religiosity were positively correlated with their family hardiness. In multiple regression analyses we controlled for family income, parent education, total number of children in the family, the age of the CWD, and parent caregiver burden. After controlling for these variables, mothers’ religiosity predicted hardiness. In multiple regressions using similar control variables, fathers’ private religiosity predicted fathers’ hardiness only after adding the control variables, but fathers’ public religiosity approached significance in predicting fathers’ hardiness and after adding the control variables, became significant.
Implications: Religiosity predicted family hardiness after controlling for the above-mentioned variables. It would be important to provide information to parents raising a CWD about seeking comfort and strength from religious sources in order to strengthen family hardiness.