Analysis of influencing factors of parents' job stress of preschool children with mental retardation based on preference score matching.

BACKGROUND: Intellectual disability (ID), affecting 1%-3% of children globally, presents significant challenges for parents that often translate into occupational stress. While studies document elevated parenting stress levels (33.57 vs 26.46 in controls), job-related impacts remain poorly understood. This study employs propensity score matching (PSM) to rigorously analyze work stress determinants among parents of preschool-aged children with ID, controlling for socioeconomic and behavioral confounders. The research bridges a critical gap by examining how workplace demands intersect with special caregiving responsibilities, aiming to identify modifiable risk factors for targeted interventions. Findings will inform evidence-based workplace accommodations and support policies, offering novel insights into the occupational consequences of parenting a child with ID through advanced causal inference methods. This work holds important implications for hazard ratio (HR) policies and social support systems serving this vulnerable population.

AIM: To explore the factors affecting the job stress of parents of preschool children with mental retardation (MR), based on the PSM.

METHODS: One hundred and twenty-five children aged 3-6 years who were treated in our hospital from December 2022 to December 2024 were included in the questionnaire survey. Five cases were excluded due to incomplete data, and 120 cases completed the study. The questionnaire was filled out by the parents of the children, and 100 parents of normal children were selected to be included in the control group. After the baseline difference was balanced by PSM 1:1 matching, the general information, scores of parental stress in each dimension and parental stress level of the two groups were compared and analyzed. Single factor analysis was carried out on the factors affecting the parental stress of group; Pearson was used to analyze the correlation between the factors affecting parental stress in MR group. Logistic regression was used to analyze the factors affecting the job stress of parents in MR group.

RESULTS: After matching, there were 97 cases in both groups. The differences of parents' working status and family location in MR group were statistically significant, P < 0.05. Parents in MR group were significantly higher than those in control group in every dimension and total score, of which 75.22% were at a high level, P < 0.05. Univariate analysis shows that the older the parents are, the more unstable their work status is, the lower their education level is, the less their family income is, their location is in the countryside and the children have a genetic history, the higher their parental stress score is. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the total score of parental stress was related to supporting friends (r = -0.354), seeking social support, maintaining self-esteem and psychological stability (r = -0.146), coping style frequency (r = -0.476) and role size (r = -0.063). P < 0.05. Using the binary Logistic regression model, it was found that whether the child had a genetic history (HR = 1.667) was a risk factor affecting the parents' job stress of MR children, and friends' support (HR = 0.539), seeking social support (HR = 0.478) , maintaining self-esteem and psychological stability (HR = 0.625) , and the frequency and role of coping styles (HR = 0.794) were all its protective factors, P < 0.05.

CONCLUSION: Parents' parental stress of most preschool children with MR is at a high level, in which children's genetic history is its risk factor, and friends' support, seeking social support, maintaining self-esteem and psychological stability, as well as the frequency and role of coping styles are its protective factors, which provides new intervention programs and measures to alleviate parents' parental stress of MR children.