Depression is one of the mental disorders which is often experienced by
people between age 15-44. It is recently estimated that female people who
experience depression are between 10%-15% and on men are between 5%-12%. It
is even estimated that in 2020 depression will take place in the second order of
disability cause. People who carry much burden because mental retardation are
parents especially mothers. Parents who can’t accept the existence of child who
suffers mental retardation will experience frustration, feel incapable and lose
confidence, this feeling is the one which leads to depression.
The purpose of this research is to understand the difference of depression
level among mothers of mental retarded child with mothers of normal child.
The used research design is analytic descriptive with cross sectional
approach. The used measurement tools in this research are L-MMPI “Lie
Minessota Multiphasic Personality Inventory” and BDI “Beck Depression
Inventory” scale. The total samplings are 50 people who consist 25 mothers of
mental retardation child and 25 mothers of normal child.
For the hypothesis test, t-test and Mann-Withney test are used. It obtains
the value of t-test =2.255 (P=0.030<0.05), therefore H0 is rejected, means that
there is a difference of depression level among mothers of child mental retardation
in SDLB-C with the mother of normal child in SDN Dhukuhan Kerten Surakarta.
That mothers of child mental retardation are more depressed than mothers of
normal child. Therefore, the results of this research can provide information about
the child's mental retardation and need further research with a more accurate
method
