Date of Conferral

2023

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Human Services

Advisor

Sarah Matthey

Abstract

There has been a trend of increased diagnoses of childhood disabilities in the United States. Mothers who care for a child diagnosed with disabilities typically experience increased parental obligations and maternal mental health deficits that often go undiagnosed or untreated, resulting in adverse events. Researchers found that peer mentoring is an effective, nonclinical resource for addressing these mothers’ intervention needs but have not established alternative ways to increase access and delivery. The purpose of this generic, qualitative study was to explore how mothers of children with disabilities perceive online peer mentoring as an intervention resource for stress and coping. Lazarus’s transactional model for stress and coping was used as the conceptual framework. Participants were recruited through parent support organizations sharing recruitment flyers via social media. Data were collected from open-ended, semistructured interviews with nine U.S. mothers who were 18-years-old or older, caring for a child living with disabilities. Participants’ interview transcripts were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis, resulting in six emergent themes: (a) mothers of children with disabilities experience complex caregiver dualities, (b) chronic stress is significantly linked to mothers’ caregiver dualities, (c) general coping mechanisms offer limited support, (d) online peer mentoring improves stress and coping support resources, (e) convenience of online modality outweigh breach of privacy concerns, and (f) online peer mentoring is usually referred by word of mouth. The findings of this study showed that online peer mentoring may be useful in the future development of remote, mental health interventions and increased support services for mothers of children with disabilities.

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