Published Paper Details:

Background of the study An intellectually disabled child requires more parental attention and involvement than a normally developing child. The attitude of parents towards their disabled child plays an important role in adaptive skill development in child and improving the quality of life of both parent and child. Objectives of the study The main aim of this study was to assess the attitude of mothers towards care of their intellectually disabled child. Methods A descriptive study was conducted to assess the attitude of parents of intellectually disabled children. 150 parents of children with mild and moderate intellectual disability were selected for the study. The sample was selected with purposive sampling method. The setting of the study was three selected Special schools at Calicut district, Kerala. A demographic questionnaire and a parental attitude scale for problem children by N. Rangaswamy (1989) were administered to assess the attitude of parents towards care of their children. A descriptive statistics was carried out to find out the mean attitude scores of parents towards their intellectually disabled children. Results Majority (81.3%) of mothers spent 4-8 hours per day for their job or house hold works. The time spends for care of their intellectually disabled child was 3-6hours per day by majority (81.3 %) of mothers. Majority (60%) of the children belonged to the age group of 13-17 years. The results showed that majority (46%) mothers having a moderately unfavorable attitude (mean score 42.3 and 36.7 % mothers were having a favorable attitude and 17.3% of mothers having highly unfavorable attitude towards care of their intellectually disabled children. The results showed that there is no association between the gender of child (?2= 4.72), age of the child (?2=1.117) and educational status of the mother (?2=3.84) with parental attitude. There is a significant association found in mother�s occupational status (?2=15.38) and family income per month (?2=12.74) with the attitude of mothers. Conclusion Parental attitude towards care of intellectually disabled children has very important role in the proper growth and development of the child. This study shows that majority of the mothers were having a moderately unfavorable attitude towards their children.