Arab Educational Information Network

The purpose of this study was to identify the psychological needs of parents of children with intellectual disabilities and to examine the impact of the child’s age and severity of disability on parents’ psychological needs in the United Arab Emirates. The study sample consisted of 690 parents of children with intellectual disabilities. The study was conducted during the academic year 2016-2017. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed to answer the research questions. The results of this study revealed that parents of students with intellectual disabilities had many psychological needs. In addition to that, there were significant differences in parents’ psychological needs based on the child’s disability severity level. The parents’ psychological needs of children with severe intellectual disabilities were more in comparison to the psychological needs of parents of children with mild or moderate intellectual disabilities. With regard to the child’s age, the child’s age statistically affect the parents’ psychological needs. The younger the child, the more psychological needs parents reported. (Author’s abstract)