Relationships between Parental Self-efficacy and Posttraumatic Growth in Mothers of Children with down Syndrome

OF DISSERTATION RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTAL SELF-EFFICACY AND POSTTRAUMATIC GROWTH IN MOTHERS OF CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the relationships between maternal variables (mother status (biological or adoptive), birth order of the child with Down syndrome, timing of diagnosis (in utero or at birth), mother’s age at time of birth or adoption, time elapsed since diagnosis and maternal psychological variables (parenting self-efficacy, and Posttraumatic growth). The current study hypothesizes that maternal variables will be positively related to parenting self-efficacy and that parenting selfefficacy will explain a significant portion of the variance in maternal Posttraumatic growth. Results indicated that maternal self-efficacy as measured by the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale was not significantly related to maternal perceived growth following their child’s diagnosis of Down syndrome. Time passed since diagnosis was also not significantly related to either self-efficacy or perceived growth. Limitations and future directions are discussed.