Time Use of Mothers of Children with Cerebral Palsy and Mothers of Healthy Children: A Comparative Study

Mothers generally contribute a great amount of time for caring for their children. Mothers of children with disabilities may need more time to take care of them as they have some special needs. However, there is a lack of study in Bangladesh regarding time use patterns among mothers of disabled children and mothers with healthy children. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to compare the time use pattern of mothers of children with cerebral palsy and mothers of healthy children. The prototype of the Occupational questionnaire was used to collect data from the 100 mothers. Among them, 50 mothers of children with CP from Savar-CRP and Mirpur-CRP were selected and 50 mothers of children without disabilities were selected from a primary school. The demographic part of the study included the mothers' age, educational status, and occupational status. The result of the independent 't' test demonstrated that mothers of cerebral palsy spent a longer time in productivity rather than other groups. The study found out those mothers with healthy children felt relatively balanced in time allocation for their children, whereas mothers of cerebral palsy children had a less balanced time use as they spent more time in productivity. So, it was found from the study that mothers of cerebral palsy had an imbalance in their daily activities when comparing to mothers of healthy children.