Mental health, emotional intelligence and social support among mothers of children with mild intellectual disability

Abstract

This correlation research compared the levels of mental health among Iranian and Malaysian mothers of children with mild intellectual disability, and role of emotional intelligence and social support on their mental health. The research is based on the purposive sampling technique which involved 227 respondents from Tehran, Iran and 236 respondents from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS version 16.0) and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS version 16.0). T-test was used to compare the values of the means of the Iranian and Malaysian samples while Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyse the good fit of the model in studying the relationships among the variables. The findings showed that Malaysian mothers have better mental health but Iranian mothers have higher emotional intelligence. There was no significant difference in social support between Iranian and Malaysian mothers but emotional intelligence and social support were significant predictors of mental health for both groups of mothers. Examinations using modification index for measuring the structural fit of Iranian and Malaysian models respectively indicated that the values fulfilled the required minimum threshold values of cmin/df=2.268, CFI= .96, RMSEA= .068 and cmin/df=2.761, CFI= .92 and RMSEA= .087. These results indicated that the model has factorial invariance across samples. Thus, they confirmed the validity (factorial validity) of the hypothesized models. It is recommended that health planners and practitioners pay more attention to developing programs and services that enhance the level of emotional intelligence and social support. To address this, schools should provide training programs as continuing education courses for all teachers, school counselors and administrators, particularly, in schools which provide special education for students with disabilities.