Coping strategies of fathers in early intervention services and parenting stress levels

Abstract

We evaluated the relationship between (1) the coping strategies used by fathers of children receiving early intervention services and (2) the stress fathers experience as a result of child rearing. One-hundred and forty-four fathers from 17 early intervention centers in the Valencian Autonomous Community (Spain) participated in the study. We measured the fathers’ parenting stress and coping strategies using the Parenting Stress Index-SF (PSI-SF) and the Adult Coping Response Inventory (CRI-A), respectively. Structural equation models were created to assess the simultaneous effects of child- related variables and the fathers’ sociodemographic variables on parenting stress, mediated by the fathers’ coping strategies. The coping strategy Positive Reappraisal was negatively related to all the PSI-SF stress factors and the total score. Therefore, more frequent use of Positive Reappraisal strategies was related to lower rates of parenting stress. In addition, the educational level of the father and the type of disability of the child were related to the fathers’ parenting stress and the coping strategies they used, principally, Avoidant Coping Styles. Fathers of children receiving early intervention services could benefit from intervention programs that consider coping strategies for parenting stress, contributing, in this way, to increasing the fathers’ perception of their parenting competence.