Stress in Greek mothers with deaf children. Effects of child characteristics, family resources and cognitive set.

In an effort to understand the impact of their children's deafness on Greek mothers, demographic, disability-related and stress characteristics were examined with 42 hearing mothers and their deaf children. The work was based on Hill's ABCX model and Bronfenbrenner's social ecology model, entailing a microsystem, mesosystem, ecosystem, and macrosystem. In addition to child history obtained from school records, Rotter's locus of control scale, Coopersmith's self-esteem inventory and the Clarke questionnaire on resources and stress were given to mothers. Onset of deafness before 18 months of age was associated with greater maternal stress. A tendency for mothers of younger children to report more stress was evident. The mothers mainly had an external locus of control, attributing events to outside agents beyond their control. Self-esteem proved the best predictor of stress, with a low-esteem associated with greater reported stress. The findings are discussed with reference to disability-related and cultural factors.