LEVEL OF ANXIETY AMONG PARENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Received 2023-07-12; Accepted 2023-09-27; Published 2023-09-27

Abstract

Anxiety disorders (AD) are usually undiagnosed and untreated among adults where the symptoms overlap with other medical conditions. In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the world COVID-19 as a pandemic, where it affects economic as well as social disruption all over the world. This pandemic also has an impact on individual’s mental health as it leads to stress, depression, and anxiety. All ranges of ages were affected due to this pandemic as well as parents with special needs children. All sectors such as schools and therapy centres were closed, and the needs of special children increased. Therefore, this study focuses on parent’s anxiety level in raising up special needs children during COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to determine the levels of anxiety among the parents during COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia by conducting a cross-sectional study using The Beck Anxiety
Inventory for Malays (BAI-Malay) and it is conducted through online platform via google form. Participants involved were 65 parents of special needs children ages 7 to 12 years old. The level of anxiety reported by 65 parents is 40% at minimal level of anxiety, 24.6% at mild level, 16.9% are moderate anxiety and 18.5% are severe anxiety. There was no statistically significant difference between sociodemographic characteristics (role of parents, age of parents, marital status, and family income) with level of anxiety among them (p > 0.05).