The Influence of Social Support, Spirituality and Resilience in the Subjective Well-Being of Parents of Children with Special Needs.

Abstract

It has previously been established that social support and spirituality influence the well-being of parents of children with special needs. To date, few literatures have examined the psychological process through which these protective resources exert their effects on well-being. This study explored whether social support and spirituality predicted the subjective well-being (i.e., Life satisfaction, Positive affect and Negative affect) of parents of children with special needs in Ghana. It further examined the mediating role of resilience in the relationship between social support and subjective well-being as well as spirituality and subjective well-being. A total of 107 biological parents were sampled from two support groups and special schools where their wards attended to complete both online or paper-and-pencil surveys on life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, resilience, social support and spirituality in this correlational study. The results of multiple hierarchical regression indicated that social support predicted life satisfaction and negative affect but not positive affect whereas spirituality predicted all three components after controlling sociodemographic variables. Moreover, mediational analyses revealed that social support and spirituality indirectly influenced life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect through resilience. Specifically, greater levels of social support and spirituality, predicted greater resilience, which successively led to greater life satisfaction, also positive affect and lesser negative affect. These results emphasize the necessity of targeting parents’ well-being through resilience to help them deal with the burdens of providing care for their children with special needs.