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                      American Economic & Social Review; Vol. 5, No. 2; 2019 
                                       ISSN 2576-1269     E-ISSN 2576-1277 

Published by Centre for Research on Islamic Banking & Finance and Business, USA 
 

     38 
 

 

Socio-Demographic Predictors of Perceived Burden of Care among Care Givers 
of Non-Mentally and Mentally Retarded Students in Ibadan, Nigeria 

  

 

Olaseni Abayomi Oladele Ph.D 
Department of Pure and Applied Psychology 

Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, Nigeria  
Tel: +234(0)8033539662 

E-mail: contactolaseni@gmail.com 
 

Okhakhume Aide Sylvester Ph.D 
Department of Psychology 

University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria  
Tel: 234(0)8023708826 

E-mail: okhasly2004@yahoo.com 
 
 

 
 
Abstract  
The care of mentally retarded children is often stressful experiences for family members, as the child grows up and disability 
becomes quite noticeable by others, parents face a very distressing predicament of social embarrassment and stigma, they require 
more attention and time while at the same time the need for special equipment, and medical care increases; implicating financial 
income and capability of the care providers.  The aftermath effect on the care provider(s) most often is restrictive and disruptive 
to economic, social or emotional deficiency. The study examines the influence of socio-demographic variables on care burden of 
care providers of non-mentally and mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis.  The study adopted cross sectional research 
design across types of job, social support, religion, ethnicity and age. A total number of 100 care providers participated in the 
study (50 care providers of non-mentally retarded students & 50 care providers of the mentally retarded students). The 
instruments that were used was Care Givers Burden Scale developed by Zarit et al (1980). The result of the study revealed that 
demographic variables (age, sex, marital status, education level, job type, religion and ethnicity) do not jointly predict burden of 
care among care providers of mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. [F(7,43)=1.722;p>.05], but revealed that 
demographic variables jointly predict burden of care among care providers of non-mentally retarded students in Ibadan 
metropolis. [F(7,43)=2.39;p<.05], and finally revealed that social support had significant influence on burden of care among 
care providers of mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis [t(98)= 11.13; P<.05]. The study therefore concludes that 
demographic variables jointly predict burden of care among care providers of non-mentally retarded students not mentally 
retarded students. While social support was found to significantly influence burden of care among care providers of mentally 
retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. 
 
Keywords:  Demographic factors, Social support, Burden of care, Mentally retarded        

1. Background 
The birth and continuing care by parents of children with mental retardation experience high level of emotional, financial and 
physical stress (Byrne & Cunningham, 1985). There are multiple problems of having a mentally retarded child in the family. The 
problems are mainly related to the social ridicule and social stigma. As the child grows up and disability becomes quite 
noticeable by others, parents face a very distressing predicament of social embarrassment and stigma. This may lead to isolation 
of the child even within the family the child may be restricted from coming out when relatives and friends visit the house or may 
be left back at home when parent go out. Cernic and Greenberg (1985) found that the cumulative impact of daily parenting 
hassles and difficulty in dealing with children represent significant stressors that may subsequently affect parents and family 
conditioning. Consequently, parents of the retarded children have been viewed as being at risk for a variety of family life 
problems and emotional difficulties.  



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In addition, families often face increased financial burdens while children require special equipment, medical care, and 
programming and at the same time; family income may be reduced because caregiving responsibilities make it difficult for two 
parents to work outside the home. An added area of concern for some families is difficulty managing family relations 
(Featherstone, 1980). Roles within the family may need to be restructured and the resulting strain may manifest itself in family 
problems, including high rates of dissertation, divorce, family quarrelling and marital breakdown; establishing and maintain 
satisfying social networks (Kazak & Marvin, 1984). Relationships with professionals also may be source of added stress 
(Turnbull, 1986); establishing and maintain satisfying social networks (Kazak & Marvin, 1984). Relationships with 
professionals also may be a source of added stress (Turnbull, 1986) as parents face difficulties in their efforts to secure adequate 
services for their child or obtain information about their child’s disability. Parents undergo chronic sorrow which is periodic in 
nature, precipitated by child’s deviants from normal performance. The intensity of reaction was related to the particular 
developmental stage and the individual coping strengths of the family (Wilker et al; 1981). Feelings of depression are common, 
particularly when realization of the child’s retardation is recent. Some mothers react to the retarded child as if he had died and 
manifest the typical grief reaction associated with the loss of a loved one. 

Socio-demographic factors are found associated with the burden of caregiving across studies. The factors that tend to 
be consistently associated with higher levels of burden across studies include lower educational attainment in the caregivers 
(Zahid et al, 2010; Caqueo-Urízar et al, 2006), and poor social support (Ohaeri et al, 2001). 

Care providers of children with developmental disabilities expressed a high level of overall burden, particularly in 
financial domains, greater subjective caregiver burden, increased disability – related costs; maternal factors such as being younger 
and having higher educational attainment; and less social support. Extra cost related to disabilities was the strongest predictor of 
increased caregiver burden and the social support can reduce the burden (Heykyung et al., 2009). As the child grows the families 
are trying to accept the child and one study also found that older caregivers mobilize their families to acquire and accept the 
child and experienced significantly less personal burden than others. It also concluded that younger caregivers are more 
predisposed toward seeking outside help and have higher expectations of the service system. Care providers of children with 
mental retardation adopt different types of coping strategies to overcome their problems. Denial, Rehearsal of outcome, finding 
a purpose and seeking emotional support were the commonly utilized coping styles by the mothers of mentally handicapped 
children.  

Social support is broad term encompassing a variety of constructs, including support perceptions (perceived support) 
and receipt of supportive behaviours (received support). The recent studies report no difference between mothers and fathers in 
terms of their social isolation. Evidence exists that in some instances families of children without disabilities may have larger and 
less dense social networks than families of children who are disabled (Fredrich & Fredrich, 1981) both attributes indicative of 
less adequate support. Some studies found that the presence of social support significantly predicts the individual’s ability to  
cope with stress and it was knowing that they are valued by others is an important psychological factor in helping them to forget 
the negative aspects of their lives, and thinking more positively about their environment. It also found that social support not 
only helps improve a person’s well-being, it affects the immune system as well. Thus, it also a major factor in preventing negative 
symptoms such as depression and anxiety from developing (Corey, 2005). Studies found that both hardiness and social support 
were predictive of successful adaptation.   

Reduction in the quality of care by the care givers can set in conditions of overdependence on the care providers by the 
mental retards can result into frustration and over-burdens which in turn will lead to transfer of aggression and confrontation. 
These conditions can affect the survival and existence of the mental retards. Another problem is the affections of the care 
providers on the mental retarded individuals. The way the care providers feels about their jobs and the mentally retarded goes a 
long way in either functioning well or be frustrated and transferring aggression on the mental retard who do not know or are 
aware of their dependence on the care givers. If the care givers are frustrated, the frustration can result to irrational thinking or 
behaviours which will determine the action and reaction of the care giver on the mental retards. 

The quality of care enjoyed by the mentally retarded can be increase or decrease depending on the efficiency of social 
support the care givers enjoy.  

 
2. Study Objectives 

 To determine if age, sex, marital status, educational achievement, job type, religion, and ethnicity independently and 
jointly determine burden of care among care givers of non-mentally retarded students. 

 To determine if age, sex, marital status, educational achievement, job type, religion, and ethnicity independently and 
jointly determine burden of care among care givers of mentally retarded students.  

 To examine the influence of social support on burden of care among care givers of mentally retarded students. 
 
 
 



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3. Conceptual framework 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
4. Research Hypotheses  

 To determine if age, sex, marital status, educational achievement, job type, religion, and ethnicity independently and 
jointly determine burden of care among care givers of non-mentally retarded students. 

 To determine if age, sex, marital status, educational achievement, job type, religion, and ethnicity independently and 
jointly determine burden of care among care givers of mentally retarded students.  

 To examine the influence of social support on burden of care among care givers of mentally retarded students. 
 

5. Method  
5.1 Design  
The study adopted cross sectional research design. In essence to assess and integrates various areas and scopes to the research 
concepts; such as care providers of non-mentally retarded students and care providers of mentally retarded students, across types 
of job, religion, ethnicity and age. Data collection involves both quantitative methods in collection of information.  
 
5.2 Sample and Sampling Size 
A total number of 100 care providers participated in the study (50 care providers of non-mentally retarded students & 50 care 
providers of the mentally retarded students). The caregivers are drawn from three (3) schools for special students (Chesire 
Home, Eleyele, United School, Ijokodo and Ijokodo School of the disabled) and three (3) schools for non-mentally retarded 
schools in Ibadan (Richmab International School, ring road, Sunshine Kiddies College, Okebola, and Mercy International 
School, Joyceb road ring road).  
 
5.3 Instruments 
The instruments that were used was Berlin Social Support Scale developed by Ralf Schwarzer & Ute Schulz and Care givers 
burden scale developed by Zarit et al (1980).The questionnaire comprised of the following sections; 
The measurement of socio-demographic information of the participants involves; age, marital status, educational level, job type, 
religion and ethnicity. Sex was be reported as male (A) and female (B); the age range of the participants were 25yrs to 50yrs , the 
marital status includes married, single, divorced, separated, and others to be specified; the educational level includes primary 
school certificate, SSCE, ND/NCE, BSC/HND, M.SC/MBA, and others to be specified; the job type includes nurse, doctor, 
teachers and others to be specified; the religion includes Christianity, Islam and others to be specified; the ethnicity included 
Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, and others to be specified. 

The caregivers burden scale is a likert format scale of 22 items of which the caregivers where made to respond to how 
they felt in general towards what they are going through because of their ward. The response format ranges from nearly always 
(4) to never (0). 

Age 

Sex 

Job Type  

Religion 

Ethnicity 

Marital Status 

Educational Achievement  

Social Support  

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES DEPENDENT VARIABLE 

SOCIAL FACTORS  

CARE GIVER’S BURDEN 

DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS  



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The social support scale contained seventeen (17) items cutting across the aspects of the perceived emotional support of the 
caregivers, perceived instrumental support, need for support, and support seeking. The caregivers were made to think of persons 
close to them and to rate how the person has treated them in the past few week. It is based on a (4) Point likert scale. The 
responses ranges from (1) strongly agree (2) somewhat disagree (3) somewhat agree (4) strongly agree. 
 
5.4 Procedure 
Proposal was submitted to ethical committee of the schools for ethical approval to conduct the study with the target population. 
An introductory letter was drafted and distributed to the Heads of the respected schools and care providers of both mentally 
retarded students and non-mentally retarded students to introduce the researcher and research purpose. The questionnaire and 
informed consent was translated to Yoruba; for the sake of the participants in target schools who are illiterates therefore cannot 
read in English language. The questionnaires were then administered among the consenting participants only. Questionnaire was 
self-administered to over 100 care givers of both care givers of mentally retarded persons and normal persons. In addition, data 
collected will be analyzed using SPSS package version 17 for statistical sophistication. 
 
5.5 Statistical Analysis 
Hypotheses 1 and 2 were analyzed using standard Multiple regression analysis to examine how the demographic variables 
independently and dependently predict burden of care providers while, hypothesis 3 was analyzed using t-test of independent to 
compare differences between two groups on the dependent variable. 
 
6. Results 
The results of the analyses are presented in Tables 1, 2 and 3. 
Hypothesis 1 
Age, sex, marital status, educational achievement, job type, religion, and ethnicity will significantly and jointly determine burden 
of care among care givers of non-mentally retarded students in Ibadan. 
 
Table 1: Multiple Regression Analyses showing demographic variables as predictors of Burden of Care among care providers of 
Mentally Retarded Students in Ibadan. 
 

Predictors   T Sig. R2 ▲R2 F P 

 Age -.45 -.91 -.03*     

Sex .02 .60 .56     

Marital status .16 1.90 .17     

Education Achievement  .08 1.42 .17 .22 .09 1.72 > .05 

Job Type .04 -.03 .54     

Religion -.02 -.13 .40     

Ethnicity -.09 -.61 .50     

*Denotes significance at p <0.05  

 
The result in table 1 revealed that demographic variables (age, sex, marital status, education level, job type, religion and ethnicity) 

do not jointly predict burden of care among care providers of mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. [F(7,43) =
1.722; p > .05]. However, the result of the independent prediction indicate that age independently predicts burden of care 

among care providers of mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis ( = 0.45, t = −0.91, p < .05), this implies that 
age independently accounted for about 45% variance in burden of care experienced by care providers of mentally retarded 

students in Ibadan metropolis, However, sex (𝛽 = 0.03; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠), marital status (𝛽 = 0.16; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠) education level (𝛽 =
0.08; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠), job type (𝛽 = −0.04; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠), religion (𝛽 = −0.02; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠) and ethnicity (𝛽 = −0.09; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠) did not 
significant and independent predict burden of care. Hypothesis one is therefore rejected.  
 
Hypothesis 2 
Age, sex, marital status, educational achievement, job type, religion, and ethnicity will significantly and jointly determine burden 
of care among care givers of mentally retarded students in Ibadan.  
 
 
 
 



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Table 2: Multiple Regression Analyses showing demographic variables as predictors of Burden of Care among care Providers of 
Non-mentally Retarded Students in Ibadan 
 

Predictors   T Sig. R2 ▲R2 F P 

 Age -.01 -.05 .33     

Sex -.14 -.99 .53     

Marital status  .45 2.91 .01     

Education Achievement  -.03 -.21 .14 .30* .18* 2.39* < .05 

Job Type .06 .41 .42     

Religion -.18 -1.27 .43     

Ethnicity -.04 -.30 .12     

*Denotes significance at p <0.05  

 
The result in table 2 revealed that demographic variables (age, sex, marital status, education level, job type, religion and ethnicity) 

jointly predict burden of care among care providers of non-mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. [F(7,43) =
2.39; p < .05]. This implies that demographic variables of care providers of non-mentally retarded students jointly accounted 
for 30% variance observed by care providers of non-mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. However, the results of the 
independent prediction indicate that marital status independently predicts burden of care among care providers of non-mentally 

retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. Marital status( = 0.45, t = 2.91, p < .05), this implies that marital status 
independently accounted for about 45% variance observed in burden of care among care providers of non-mentally retarded 

students in Ibadan metropolis. However, age (𝛽 = −0.01; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠), sex (𝛽 = −0.14; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠), education level (𝛽 =
−0.03; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠), job type (𝛽 = 0.06; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠), religion (𝛽 = −0.18; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠) and ethnicity (𝛽 = −0.04; 𝑝. 𝑛𝑠) do not 
significant independent predict burden of care among care providers of non-mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. 
Hypothesis two is therefore accepted 
 
Hypothesis 3 
Social support will have significant influence on burden of care among care providers of mentally retarded students in Ibadan. 
Table 3: t-test of Independent showing the influence of Social Support on Burden of care among care providers of Mentally 
Retarded Students in Ibadan. 
 

 Social Support N M SD df T p 

 Low 52 41.54 12.27    

Burden of care   98 11.13 < .05 

 High 45 16.09 09.89    

 
The results of the test as shown in table 3 indicated that social support had significant influence on burden of care 

among care providers of mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis [𝑡(98) =  11.13;  𝑃 < .05]. The result implies that 
there is significant difference in the social support of participants on the burden of care experienced by care providers of 
mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis sampled. However, care providers of mentally retarded students with low social 
support experienced more burden of care (M = 41.54; SD = 12.27) than care providers of mentally retarded students with high 
social support (M = 16.09; SD = 09.89). Hypothesis three is therefore accepted. 
 
7. Discussion  
The outcome of the study revealed that demographic variables (age, sex, marital status, education level, job type, religion and 
ethnicity) do not jointly predict burden of care among care providers of mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. 
However, the result of the independent prediction indicate that age plays a significant roles in enabling burden of care among 
care providers of mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis, this implies that age independently accounted for about 45% 
variance in burden of care experienced by care providers of mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis, However, sex, 
marital status, education level, job type, religion and ethnicity did not play significant role predicting burden of care. The study 
was not in support with the findings of Zahid et al, (2010) that revealed that socio-demographic factors are strongly related the 
burden of caregiving.  

The study further revealed that demographic variables (age, sex, marital status, education level, job type, religion and 
ethnicity) jointly predict burden of care among care providers of non-mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. This 
implies that demographic variables of care providers of non-mentally retarded students jointly accounted for 30% variance 



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observed by care providers of non-mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. However, the results of the independent 
prediction indicate that marital status independently plays significant role in the burden of care among care providers of non-
mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis.  However, age, sex, education level, job type, religion and ethnicity do not play 
significant role on burden of care experienced by care providers of non-mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis. The 
study was in support with the findings of Caqueo-Urízar et al, (2006) that revealed that socio-demographic factors are strongly 
related the burden of caregiving. 

It shows that the social support programme has significant influence on the burden of care among care providers of 
retarded persons. This result is related to the study of Kennet, Burgio, & Schulz, (2000) that shows there is also a significant 
influence of social support on burden of care. The similar findings by Heykyung et al., (2009) conducted a study on Caregiver 
Burden and Social Support among Mothers Raising Children with Developmental Disabilities in South Korea. They found that 
respondents expressed a high level of overall burden, particularly in financial domains.  
 
8. Conclusion  
The study purpose was to examine the influence of socio-demographic variables on burden of care among non-mentally and 
mentally retarded students’ care providers in Ibadan metropolis. The study therefore concludes that demographic variables (age, 
sex, marital status, education level, job type, religion and ethnicity) do not jointly predict burden of care among care providers of 
mentally retarded students in Ibadan metropolis, while it was also concluded that demographic variables (age, sex, marital status, 
education level, job type, religion and ethnicity) jointly predict burden of care among care providers of non-mentally retarded 
students in Ibadan metropolis. and finally, the study concluded that social support plays significant roles in either in alleviating 
or strengthening of burden of care among care providers. This implies that, care providers with high social support feel less 
burden of care than care providers with low social support.  
 
9. Recommendation 
The members of the family of the mentally retarded students and the community at large should take conscious steps and act to 
acknowledge that the quality and quantity of their social support does not only produce direct positive impact to the retarded 
but alleviate the burden of care of the care givers. 

Schools and government are also call on to encourage the provision of social support package by funding provision of 
social facilities that can enhance the programme in order to boost the reduction of stress and burden of care givers and retarded 
individual and also enact policy that will lighten the workload of employees whom are car givers to mentally retarded children 
and adult. 
 
10. Conflict of Interest 
Authors declare no conflict of interest. 
 
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