Differences in Levels of Parental Stress among Mothers of Learning Disabled, Emotionally Impaired, and Regular School Children

This study examined the stress among mothers of children in regular and special education. The sample of 45 mothers had children enrolled in public schools from Kindergarten to Grade 8. To three groups, Group 1 of mothers with children in regular education, Group 2 of mothers with children classified as learning disabled, and Group 3 of mothers with children classified as emotionally impaired, the Parenting Stress Index was given to examine whether differences in stress among groups were significant. An analysis of variance and Tukey's HSD indicated significant differences in the Child Domain and on certain child subscales (Acceptability, Mood, Distractibility, Reinforcement), with Group 3 scoring significantly higher than Group 1. Groups 2 and 3 scored significantly higher on the Total Child Domain than Group 1. Group 3 also scored higher than Group 1 on the Parent Domain and on the sum of both domains.

Using Three Different Types of Assessment Data for Diagnostic Purposes

This study investigated the performance of 38 learning disabled and 16 emotionally impaired children and youth on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised, Wide Range Achievement Test—Revised, and Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test—Revised. The ages of the children ranged from 8.4 to 16.7 years ( M = 12.4, SD = 3.6). The findings suggest that discriminate functional analysis may be useful in the differential diagnosis process. Implications for clinicians are discussed.