Parenting Stress in Mothers of Gifted and Typical Children

• Author / Creator

  Bishop, Barbara D

• Abstract
  This study was designed to compare reported levels of parenting stress in mothers
  of gifted children with mothers of typical children. Mothers of school aged children (Kindergarten to Grade Five) whose children have been identified by a registered psychologist as being gifted through standardized intelligence assessments (n = 30) completed the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) online. Mothers of children of school aged children (Kindergarten to Grade Five) who self-­‐identified their children having no identified learning exceptionalities (n = 30) also completed the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) online. The PSI asks participants to respond to statements in two identified major source domains of stressors: child factors and parent factors. Results show that mothers of the gifted sample report significantly greater levels of parenting stress than the mothers of the typical sample. In addition, it was shown that child factors were slightly more predictive of parenting stress than parenting characteristics. The findings point to the importance of identifying areas of parenting stress in families of gifted children so professionals working with these families have a more comprehensive understanding of the unique stressors in raising a gifted child.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Parenting
  • Stress
  • Gifted

• Graduation date

  Fall 2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Education

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3T04T

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.