THE MANAGEMENT OF EMOTIONS IN CAREGIVERS OF SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN
Rationale/Background: Caregivers of children with special needs describe negative physical, emotional and functional health consequences of long-term, informal caregiving. Caregiving demands met by caregivers of children with disabilities or special behavioral needs can cause chronic stress and have a negative effect on the caregivers’ physical and emotional health. PTC is a psycho-educational program rooted in Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, and posits that the management of emotions: (guilt, anger, and depression) will improve by identifying constructive ways of dealing with these feelings.
Methods: To measure the effectiveness of PTC among caregivers of special needs children participants completed pre-and post-program surveys. Forty eight caregivers participated in six, two-hour sessions that focused on: reducing personal stress, practicing self-care, communicating effectively in challenging situations, dealing with difficult emotions, making tough caregiving decisions, and setting goals and problem-solving. Six PTC series were held in four different states representing the Northwest, Midwest, Southeast, and East Coast regions of the country. The PTC content and survey materials were originally created for caregivers of older adults and were revised to address the caregiver population of children with special needs. For this study, the domains of caregiver emotional health were assessed based on five multi-part questions, of which participants responses were calculated on a 4-point (0-3) scale (never, sometimes, often, always). One question focused on the emotion of guilt, while the emotions of anger and depression were addressed in two questions each. An open-ended question explored what caregivers considered their most important caregiving concerns, and for this investigation were reviewed in the context of difficult emotions. The pre-program survey was administered before the first session, and the post-program survey immediately after the sixth session. The same questions were asked for both the pre-and post-program surveys.
Results: Preliminary analysis show that participants (n=40*) reported an overall improvement in the management of their emotions (P <.01) from the PTC intervention (pre-program (M=0.82) to post-program (M=0.71). While there was significant overall improvement of emotions post PTC , when guilt, anger, and depression were analyzed separately, there was no significant change in the management of the emotion of anger (P <.6); both the emotions of guilt (P<.03) and depression (P<.009) demonstrated significant differences after the intervention of the six PTC sessions. Ten of the 48 caregivers reported concerns related to management of their emotions. *Due to missing data from participants.
Implications: Findings indicate that participation in PTC can improve the management of emotions for caregivers of special needs children, especially the emotions of guilt and depression. Identifying caregivers concerns related to emotional health assists health care providers to assess strategies of support to caregivers of children with special needs.