TY - JOUR
T1 - Stress Mindset Relates to Better Mental Health in Parents of Children With Special Needs
T2 - A Path Analysis Study
AU - Datu, Jesus Alfonso D
AU - Tai, Alan Pui Lun
AU - Valdez, Jana Patricia M
AU - To, Pang Chung
AU - Fung, Wing Yee
AU - Poon, Kean
AU - Leung, Mei kei
AU - Lau, Way Kwok Wai
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2025/11
Y1 - 2025/11
N2 - Parents of children with special needs commonly encounter obstacles to effectively support their child's academic and social–emotional development. Despite the difficulties in parenting children with diverse types of exceptionalities, there has been scant research on psychological resources that can promote their mental health functioning. This research explores the direct and indirect (via perceived social support to different social partners and generalized self-efficacy) associations of stress mindset with mental health problems and parental stress in 253 parents of children with special needs via a cross-sectional design. A survey measuring stress mindset, perceived social support, generalized self-efficacy, parental stress and mental health problems was administered. The results demonstrated that stress-is-enhancing mindset was linked to milder mental health problems and parental stress via its positive associations with generalized self-efficacy and perceived social support. This research coheres with existing evidence on how stress-is-enhancing mindset in specific domains facilitates optimal psychological outcomes, especially in challenging family contexts.
AB - Parents of children with special needs commonly encounter obstacles to effectively support their child's academic and social–emotional development. Despite the difficulties in parenting children with diverse types of exceptionalities, there has been scant research on psychological resources that can promote their mental health functioning. This research explores the direct and indirect (via perceived social support to different social partners and generalized self-efficacy) associations of stress mindset with mental health problems and parental stress in 253 parents of children with special needs via a cross-sectional design. A survey measuring stress mindset, perceived social support, generalized self-efficacy, parental stress and mental health problems was administered. The results demonstrated that stress-is-enhancing mindset was linked to milder mental health problems and parental stress via its positive associations with generalized self-efficacy and perceived social support. This research coheres with existing evidence on how stress-is-enhancing mindset in specific domains facilitates optimal psychological outcomes, especially in challenging family contexts.
KW - children with special needs
KW - generalized self-efficacy
KW - mental health
KW - social support
KW - stress mindset
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85202771557
U2 - 10.1111/cfs.13228
DO - 10.1111/cfs.13228
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85202771557
SN - 1356-7500
VL - 30
SP - 931
EP - 938
JO - Child and Family Social Work
JF - Child and Family Social Work
IS - 4
ER -
