A Quasi Experimental Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Self-Instructional Module on Stress, Coping and Burden among Primary Care Givers of Mentally Retarded Children in Selected Rehabilitation Center at Kudal, Maharashtra

A quasi experimental study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of self-instructional module on stress, coping and burden among primary care givers of mentally retarded children in selected rehabilitation center at Kudal, Maharashtra. The objectives of the study were to assess the stress, coping and burden of primary caregivers of mentally retarded children, to evaluate the effectiveness of self-instructional module on stress coping and burden of primary caregivers of mentally retarded children, to determine the correlation between the stress coping and burden of primary care givers of mentally retarded children, to determine the association between the stress coping and burden of care givers with their selected demographic variables. An evaluative approach was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the self-instructional module. The study design was one group pre-test post-test design was used. The sample for the present study was primary care givers of mentally retarded children from Sri Sairup Rehabilitation center Kudal. The sample size for this study was 30 primary care givers selected with non-probability Purposive Sampling Technique. The inclusion criteria for the present study was Primary care givers of mild and moderate mentally retarded children, Both male and female primary care givers of mentally retarded children and exclusion criteria was Primary care givers of mentally retarded children with psychiatric co-morbidity. The tools for this consist of socio-demographic Performa, Perceived stress scale, Coping Self Efficacy Scale, Career Burden Interview& Visual Analogue Scale for stress. The data will be collected from the structured interview schedules were used to obtain data from primary care givers of the mentally retarded children. Questionnaire was administered for and each of the primary care givers and the investigator interviewed them individually. The self-instructional module was administered after the pre-test. The same pre-test questionnaires were used for post-test. It was conducted on the 8th day after pre-test. The result of the study shows that Age of caregivers is significantly associated with their reduction score F=2.87 P=.0.05. Elder mothers are having more reduced stress than others. These types of association are statistically significant and it was calculated using one way ANOVA /independent t-test& there is significant positive, fair correlation between stress scores of perceived stress scale and visual analogue scale. The study concluded that association between perceived stress reduction score and age of caregivers is significantly associated with their reduction score. Elder mothers are having more reduced stress than others& the post-test perceived stress scale and visual analogue scale had r=-0.36 with P=0.04 showing a significant, positive fair correlation between the two.