Personality and self esteem in parents of disabled children: A comparison between Estonia and Sweden

The main purpose of this study was to measure differences with respect to personality characteristics and self-esteem between parents of disabled children and parents of non-handicapped children in Sweden and Estonia.  A total of 270 parents were included in this study, 154 parents with a disabled child and 116 parents in a control group. The methods used were the Adjective Check List by Gough & Heilbrun, the Eysenck Personality Inventory and Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories, Adult form.  Few statistically significant differences were found between the parents of handicapped and non-handicapped children with respect to answers on the three tests. Some sex differences were found. There were a lot of cross-cultural differences, Swedish people being more extrovert and Estonian more neurotic. Swedish people also have significantly higher self-esteem.