Caregiver Burden Experienced by Parents of Children Who Stutter: A Qualitative Study

Background and aim: Stuttering in children can cause negative effects on parents' lives. Various aspects of parents' lives are affected by stuttering and parents of children who stutter (CWS) experience several caregiver burdens. Since parents of CWS play an important role in the treatment processes of CWS, proper attention to the parents of CWS is very important and necessary. Therefore, a qualitative study was undertaken to determine caregiver burdens experienced by parents of CWS.Materials and method: Fifteen parents of CWS participated in the study. Sampling was performed according to the purposive sampling method. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with parents of CWS. The interviews were continued until data saturation. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. Qualitative content analysis was applied for data analysis based on a five-step method proposed by Graneheim and Lundman (۲۰۰۴).Results: Data analysis of the interviews revealed six themes about burdens that had been experienced by parents of CWS. The emerged themes included family function, socio-communicative isolation, psychological and emotional burden, financial issues, physical health, and reactions to stuttering. Each of these themes has several subthemes. For example, the family function theme included these subthemes: blaming, father pressure on mother, misbehaving with the child, altering routines of life, changing home atmosphere, and impaired communication between parents.Conclusion: The results of the study revealed that parents of CWS endure varying aspects of caregiver burdens in their lives. Therefore, clinicians should pay special attention to the parents during the assessment and treatment processes of CWS. Also, the findings can be used for development of an appropriate and comprehensive assessment scale to determine the caregivers’ burden in parents of CWS.

کلیدواژه ها:

Caregiver Burden ، Stuttering ، Parents ، Children ، Qualitative Research