Background: Raising a child with intellectual disability may place substantial emotional, social and practical demands on parents. At the same time, families may develop resilience and adaptive strengths while coping with disability-related challenges. Psychological characteristics such as locus of control and personality may influence parental adaptation.

Aim: To compare disability impact, resilience, locus of control and personality factors among parents from families having one child with intellectual disability and those having more than one child with intellectual disability.

Materials and Methods: A comparative study was conducted among parents of children with intellectual disability selected using purposive sampling from the National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped, Secunderabad. The study included families with one child and more than one child with intellectual disability. Data were collected using the NIMH-Disability Impact Scale, Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and NEO Five Factor Inventory. Mean and standard deviation were calculated, and independent-samples t test was used for comparison between groups. Pearson correlation was used to assess relationships among disability impact, resilience, locus of control and personality factors.

Results: Parents having one child with intellectual disability had higher mean positive impact (3.90 ± 2.524) and resilience (65.97 ± 6.795), while parents having more than one child had higher negative impact (15.50 ± 7.347). No significant differences were observed in positive impact (p=0.818), negative impact (p=0.268), resilience (p=0.528), external locus of control (p=0.582), or any personality domain. Positive impact was positively correlated with resilience, and resilience was positively associated with Conscientiousness.

Conclusion: The number of children with intellectual disability was not significantly associated with disability impact, resilience, locus of control or personality factors. Positive perceptions and resilience may contribute to adaptive parental functioning.

KEYWORDS: Intellectual Disability, Parents, Resilience, Locus of Control, Personality, Family Impact.