ABSTRACT
Cerebral palsy is a chronic encephalopathy that affects family functioning, altering everyone’s routine and well-being. The intense care routine can lead to stress and affect parental self-efficacy. Thus, the aim of this article was to evaluate the possible association between stress and self-efficacy in parents of children with cerebral palsy. Eighty-one parents of children up to 12 years old participated in the study. The sociodemographic inventory, the gross motor functional rating scale, the parental stress index and the self-efficacy scale were used. The Correspondence Analysis Technique was also used. High levels of self-efficacy were associated with low levels of stress in the domains of parental distress [2.33 (98.00)] and dysfunctional parent-child interaction [1.12 (73.54)]. High parental self-efficacy acts as a buffer against stressful events in parents of children with cerebral palsy.
KEYWORDS:
Self efficacy; Stress; Cerebral palsy