Objective: Based on the studies in the literature and observations, this study aimed to compare parental stress, depression and anxiety levels of the parents of children with and without specific learning disorder (SLD).
Method: Parents of children with (n=34) and without (n=35) SLD were included in the study. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Parent Stress Inventory (PSI) were used as data collection tools.
Results: 63.8% of the participants were female and 36.2% were male. No significant difference was found between the scores obtained from the BDI among the parents of children with and without SLD. The scores obtained from the BAI of the case and control groups were analyzed. According to the results, there was no significant difference between the two groups. Results obtained from PSI showed there was a significant difference between the two groups indicating that stress levels of the parents of children with SLD were higher than parents of children without SLD.
Conclusion: According to the results obtained from the study, it was revealed that being a parent of a child with SLD did not affect the level of depression. It was also observed that parents of children with SLD which constituted the case group of the study had higher parental stress levels than the parents in the control group. In line with this result, it can be said that having a child with a diagnosis of SLD creates stress for parents.