Examination of the Relationship Between the Mental Status and Social Support of Parents of Children with Epilepsy

INTRODUCTION: Epilepsy is a chronic disease where child and the family are stigmatized; financial damage occurs; family relationship and roles change; the stress levels increase and the relationships between siblings are deteriorated. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between the mental state and social support of parents of children with epilepsy.
METHODS: The population of the study consists of all parents of children followed up for epilepsy in a Child Neurology Clinic, and the sample consists of 147 parents who meet the inclusion criteria of the study. The data were collected with The Personal Information Form, The Brief Symptom Inventory, and The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). In the evaluation of the data, Student t-test, ANOVA, and Post-Hoc tests were used.
RESULTS: In the current study, the mean scores of depression, negative self, somatization, hostility, and the brief symptom inventory of the single individuals were higher than those of the married individuals. The somatization mean scores of mothers were found to be higher than those of fathers. The family subdimensions mean scores of MSPSS and the total MSPSS mean scores of the single individuals were lower than the married individuals.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In this study, it was found that as the family support of parents of children with epilepsy decreased, their levels of anxiety, depression, and negative self increased. It can be said that as the social support of the parents decreases, their mental problems increase.Therefore, it could be recommended to organize social projects for these parents in order to increase their social support and support their mental state.