PARENTS OF MENTALLY-RETARDED CHILDREN - PERSONALITY-CHARACTERISTICS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL-PROBLEMS

This study was designed to assess the personality characteristics and psychological problems of parents of mentally retarded children. Seven ty six parents, whose mean age was 42.12 vr with SD 10.15, 38 of menta lly retarded and 38 of normal children. were investigated. A Bengali v ersion of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was used to measure th e psychoticism. neuroticism and extraversion-introversion responses of the parents. Results showed that parents of mentally retarded childre n had significantly higher scores only on the neuroticism scale, indic ating that they were more emotionally unstable than the parents of nor mal children. The findings were discussed in terms of certain constrai ning factors associated with having a mentally retarded child. Counsel ling programmes for these parents should take into account these facto rs.