Sources of perceived social support on resilience amongst parents raising children with special needs in Ghana

Background: While parenting a child with special needs is burdensome, some parents do overcome through protective resources. Social support has been widely linked to this unique ability to overcome the challenges of raising a child with special needs. In spite of this, there is still paucity of research about the influence of the sources of perceived social support on this ability, known as resilience.

Aim: This study examined three sources of perceived social support-family, friends and significant other-on the resilience of Ghanaian parents raising children with special needs while adjusting for covariates (parental gender, marital status and educational level).

Methods: One hundred and seven (107) biological parents were recruited from special schools and parents support groups in Accra, Ghana. They completed paper-and-pencil or online questionnaires on resilience and perceived social support.

Results: Output from hierarchical multiple regression after adjusting for covariates showed that only support from significant others predicted resilience. Additionally, being married was positively and holding a higher education was inversely associated with resilience.

Conclusion and implication: These findings indicate the importance of support from significant others in the resiliency of parents but underscore the need to fully integrate and emphasize support from the other sources in resilience enhancing interventions.