Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to study stress and burdens in parents of children who came for outpatient treatment at child psychiatric clinic, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. This study was cross-sectional and descriptive. The sample consisted of 108 parents of the child patients. Subjects completed 4 questionnaires; 1)a demographic form 2)the Thai Stress Test questionnaire 3)the social support questionnaire and 4)the Burden Interview. Data were analyzed by mean, percentage, standard deviation, Independence t-test, One way ANOVA, Chi-square and Pearsons correlation by using SPSS program.The results of the study were as follows: most subjects 41.7% had stress in the mild level and 51.9% had burdens in the low level. Stress and burdens had positive correlation in the linear fashion at p = 0.01. Stress and social support have negative correlation at p = 0.01. Burdens and social support have negative correlation at p = 0.01. The factor which was associated with the level of stress was the symptom severity (as perceived by parents). Factors associated with the level of burdens included religion, career, time spent in caring for the child, the number of children and the severity of symptoms (as perceived by parents) and the types of treatment.