Latent Profiles of Post-Traumatic Growth and Depression and Their Association with Social Support and Religious Activity Among Mothers of Children with Developmental Disabilities in South Korea

Background and Purpose: Although giving birth or raising a child with developmental disability could lead to post-traumatic growth (PTG) as well as distress for mothers, previous studies have focused that growth and distress following traumatic events consist of a single dimension with opposite endpoints. However, the relation between growth and distress needs to be viewed as two separates. Independent dimensions of experience as high scores on one dimension do not necessarily imply low scores in the other dimension. Social support is a valuable resource that reduced the level of depression and enabled the process of PTG and religious participation activity could act as a psychological coping resource. Therefore, the aim of this study was to (1) identify different patterns based on the relationships between sub-dimensions of PTG and depression, and (2) examine the associations between social support, religious activity participation and the identified classes.

Methods: Using purposive sampling method, we collected data from 600 parents of children with developmental disabilities utilizing welfare organizations, agencies, and therapy centers in Seoul, Gyeong-gi provinces, and Incheon. The final analysis sample included 488 mothers of children with developmental disabilities. PTG was assessed using the Korean version of the post-traumatic growth index. Depression was measured by PHQ-9. As independent variables, formal support was assessed by whether they used social support services such as caring services, and family support services or not. Informal support was measured by the multidimensional scale of perceived social support. We employed the latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify the classes of PTG and depression and ran multinomial logistic regression to examine the association between the social support, religious activity participation, and the identified classes. All analyses were conducted using STATA 15 and Mplus version 8.

Results: The LPA identified three classes of PTG and depression: “the lowest positive growth and highest depression” (class 1, 12.7%), “the middle positive growth and middle depression” (class 2, 48.16%), and “the highest positive growth and lowest depression” (class 3, 39.14%). The results of multinomial logistic regression showed that compared to “class 1”, mothers who perceived more informal support from family (OR=4.03, CI=1.54-10.53) and received support services from family caregivers (OR=3.16, CI=1.05-9.48) are more likely to be in “class 3” than mother who perceived less informal support from family and received fewer support services from caregivers. For religious activity participation, mothers who were religious and sometimes participated in activities (OR=7.94, CI=2.01-31.30) and actively participated in activities and involved in religious groups (OR=14.03, CI=3.03-64.96) were more likely to be in “class 3” than mothers who had no religious participation activity, compared to “class 1”.

Conclusions: Our findings show that family support services and family support played a key role in the higher level of mental health of mothers. Participation in religious activity also contributes to reducing depression and improving PTG of mothers. Thus, considering these findings, policymakers and practitioners should enhance family support programs and facilitate religious activities participation through linkage with religious institutions of the community.