ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to research the quality of life of families having disabled children and to determine the factors that affect quality of their lives. A total of 311 parents with disabled children who attend special education-rehabilitation programs in Edirne were included in this study. In the study, “Demographic Information Form”, which was prepared by the researchers, was used to receive some demographic information about disabled children and their families. “The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOLBref)” was another scale used in the study in order to measure the quality of life of parents. T- Test (if the groups are two) and One-way Anova (if the groups are three or more) were used in the analysis of the data collected under the SPSS-17 program. In order to find the differences between data, LSD Test was used.

The results show that the average total scores of life quality of parents having disabled students is found in different fields such as physical field [13.67 ± 2.92], mental field [13.35 ± 2.94], social field [13.04 ± 3.56], and environmental field [12.49 ± 2.66]. Moreover, all dimensions, that are being a parent, being paid fee on account of having disabled children, being supported by someone in the family and the family’s level of income, of the scale named WHOQOL-Bref are found significantly important.