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

Abstract

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. The study uses the descriptive correlative approach in the predictive and path analysis framework, through the application of: 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 is moderate, with an average of 3.57, and that the level of psychological rigidity is also moderate, with an average of 3.63. 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, psychological security and psychological rigidity in favor of the higher educational level and the average economic level and above. The results show that there is a statistically significant effect of both social support and psychological rigidity in predicting psychological security (they explained 80.7% of the percentage of variance in psychological security). 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.