Coping strategies of African mothers of children diagnosed with behavioral problems.

Abstract

This study aims at finding out whether Black Northern Sotho speaking mothers of children diagnosed with behavioural problems cope differently from their English speaking counterparts, and whether the Black mothers have more support than their control group. Forty-eight Northern Sotho speaking Black African mothers with children diagnosed with behavioural problems were drawn using a convenience sample method. Thirty-two English speaking White mothers who have the same type of children were used as the control group. Participants were drawn from clinical populations in public hospitals in the Limpopo Province (Mankweng, Polokwane, Groothoek, and Lebowakgomo hospitals). All participants were given a questionnaire. The questionnaire had the following sections: bibliographical data of the mother and family; Social Support Scale (Sarason, Levine, Basham, & Sarason, 1983); Ways of Coping Scale (Billings & Moos, 1981) and an in-depth interviewing schedule. Ten subjects from the forty-eight were interviewed using the in-depth-interviewing schedule. The ten were selected by choosing every fifth numbered participant from the experimental group until the tenth participant. Results show that White mothers (control group) of children with behavioural problems coped better than the Black mothers (experimental group). Age of the mothers and the mothers’ perception of the level of health significantly influenced scores on the Coping Scale. As the mothers’ ages decreased, their scores on the Coping increased (they coped better) and as the perceived level of health increased (more positive), the Coping score increased. However, Black mothers have more support than their control group. The perceived level of health was the only factor that significantly influenced the scores on the Social Support scale. As the perceived level of health decreased, the Social Support received increased. It is also found that the Black mothers’ use of external locus of control in their explanations of the causes of their children’s problems led to a number of feelings in the mothers. Feelings for example, of not being in control of the situation, feelings of dissatisfaction with family life, decreased motivation together with feelings of guilt and self-blame. It appears a process of acculturation could be involved in the difficulties the Black mothers experience. This acculturation process and the effect of the problematic child on their system (school, family, and parents) need to be addressed further so they could be incorporated into future intervention programmes. Due to the limitations of the study, the findings should be used with caution. Further research should be done to shed more light on the coping strategies of mothers of children with behavioural problems.