The Predictive Ability of Social Support and Psychological Rigidity in the Psychological Security Among Mothers of Children with Down Syndrome in Palestine

Abstract

The study aims to identify the predictive ability of social support and psychological rigidity in psychological security among mothers of children with Down syndrome in Palestine. The study uses the descriptive correlative approach in the predictive and path analysis framework, through the application of the study tools: the social support scale, the psychological rigidity scale, and the psychological security scale, on an available sample that includes 100 mothers of Down syndrome children in private centers that takes care of them in Palestine. The results show that the level of social support for mothers of children with Down syndrome in Palestine was moderate, with an average of 3.57, and that the level of psychological rigidity is also moderate, with an average of 3.63, where “commitment” in the highest dimension, at a high level, while "challenge" is the lowest, at moderate level. The level of psychological security is also moderate, with an average of 3.61. The results indicate that there are statistically significant differences in each of the social support and psychological security according to the educational level of the mother in favor of the higher educational level (bachelor and above), and a significant difference in the economic level in favor of the average economic level and above. The differences are also significant in the psychological rigidity and the control dimension in favor of the higher educational level, and the average or higher economic level. The results show that there is a statistically significant effect of both social support and psychological rigidity in predicting psychological security. Together, they explained 80.7% of the percentage of variance in psychological security (i.e.: social support and psychological rigidity, have an important role in predicting psychological security. It also became clear that there is a statistically significant path of social support as a mediator variable between psychological rigidity and psychological security; the value of the indirect impact of social support on psychological security is .584, while the value of the direct effect between the two variables is .620, and this indicates that the mediating variable contributed to reducing the relation between psychological rigidity and psychological security.