Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Abstract
Objective: Having a disabled child may have a negative impact on the mental health of parents, especially mothers. The aim of current study was to compare the quality of life (QOL) and mental health of mothers of disabled children with those of the mothers of normal children.
Methods: The population consisted of mothers of disabled children under the auspices of Iranian Welfare Organization in Tabriz-Iran. Stratified sampling was used to select 213 participants, of whom 64 people were the mothers of physically disabled children and 89 people were the mothers of mentally disabled children. The rest (N=60) were the mothers of children with sensory impairment. The control group consisted of 71 mothers of normal children selected from among Welfare Organization staff. The research instruments were General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL). MANOVA procedures were used to analyze the data.
Results: The results showed statistically significant differences between the mothers of normal children with the mothers of disabled children in all aspects of public health with the exception of depression (p<0.01). In addition, a statistically significant difference was found between the quality of life of mothers of mentally disabled children with the mothers of children with sensory impairments in social dysfunction (p<0.01). Though the difference in quality of life measures between mothers of normal children with mothers of disabled children were statistically significant (p<0.01), the differences between the mothers of children with various types of disabilities in subscales of the quality of life measure were not statistically significant.
Conclusion: Having a disabled child, regardless of the type of disability can affect general health and quality of life