Parenting Stress Index among Mothers of Conduct Disorder Children

Abstract

The objective is to study the parenting stress among mothers of children with conduct disorder and to highlight the possible risk factors attributed to the co-occurring stress. A case control study was conducted on 30 mothers of conduct children and a matched control group. Both groups underwent the following: semi-structured clinical interview and parenting stress index. Conduct children were diagnosed according to the ICD-10 and underwent the following: semi-structured clinical interview and a revised-behavior problem checklist. Mothers of conduct children experienced a significantly higher parenting stress score than the control and international scores, including total, parent and child domains scores. The maternal distress is experienced in all dimensions of the parent’s functioning including parent’s sense of competence, restriction of role, social isolation, and parental attachment relationship with spouse, parental health and parent depression and the distress is also predicted by the presence of inattention, hyperactivity, psychotic behavior, anxiety withdrawal, duration of the illness, delay to start treatment, age of the child and mother's education.