Psychological Stress and Perceived School Success Among Parents of Children with Developmental Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The study was correlational, so it cannot show that pandemic stress caused lower views of school success or that reducing stress would improve them. Data were parent self-report, which may be less objective than behavioral measures. The sample was uneven, with 1362 female parents and 557 male parents. Children’s disability severity was not collected, so differences in severity may have influenced stress and school success views. The sample was limited to parents of children in special schools who lived at home, so it may not apply to parents of children in mainstream schools. The stress questionnaire had an internal consistency value of .62, and the original three-factor structure did not fit, so stress was measured with less certainty than the school success subscales, which were .90. The regression effects were small, with R² values of .02 and .03.

Do not conclude that pandemic-related stress caused parents to see their child as less successful at school. The study was correlational and used self-report, and only one stress dimension predicted lower views after controls, so it cannot show cause or that reducing stress would change views.