Data on a study of the challenges faced by parents of special needs children and their impact on parental health and well-being in Trinidad and Tobago: A qualitative study.

This article presents a qualitative interview dataset collected in Trinidad and Tobago, focusing on the lived experiences of parents of children with special needs. The dataset captures rich, first-hand accounts of the emotional, social, and practical challenges encountered by parents, as well as their interactions with local healthcare, educational, and social support systems. Ethical approval was obtained from the Campus Research Ethics Committee, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, and all participants provided informed verbal consent before participation. Data were collected through semi-structured one-on-one interviews conducted virtually via Zoom to ensure accessibility, confidentiality, and participant comfort. Although participants were given the option of in-person interviews, all opted for virtual participation. Recruitment was facilitated through advocacy and community organizations supporting special needs families. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were employed to select 15 participants who met the inclusion criteria of being parents of special needs dependents. The participants varied across several demographic characteristics. Their ages ranged from 31 to 69 years. Marital status included single, married, and widowed individuals. Participants had between one and four children, with some having one or two children with special needs. Educational attainment ranged from secondary-level education to tertiary-level education. Both male and female participants were represented. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and anonymized before analysis. Thematic analysis was performed using QDA Miner software through a multistage process involving data coding, categorization, and synthesis. Data saturation determined the final sample size, ensuring adequate depth and diversity across socioeconomic, geographic, and disability type variations. The dataset includes anonymized interview transcripts and coded output tables produced during thematic analysis. It provides detailed qualitative evidence on caregiving practices, systemic barriers, and psychosocial impacts experienced by parents of special needs children in a small-island developing state. The dataset offers strong potential for reuse in cross-cultural or longitudinal analyses on caregiver well-being, disability inclusion, and social support mechanisms, as well as for informing evidence-based policy development and program design in similar regional contexts.