This study has been carried out in Adiyaman, Turkey with a group of families, who have children with down syndrome (CDS), to investigate the despair levels of families and their parental attitudes on perception and coping with stress in August-October 2018. The population of the study consists from parents of 148 CDS who live in Adiyaman/Turkey. The sample group includes 82 volunteer fathers and mothers. Data has been collected by survey methodology. The survey has 4 stages. The first stage includes five specifications which aim to detect the demographical information. Second stage is “Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)”, third stage is “Overcoming the Stress Method Scale (OSMS)” and the last stage is “Despair Scale (DS)”. The obtained data have been summarized by frequency analysis, SPSS 15 suit of program was used to analyze the data. As the education level increases, the despair level decreases. The samples who have graduated from primary school or high school have low despair level but the samples who have graduated from university still have hope. When the income considered there is no difference at the perceived stress. But the despair level increases as the income decreases. It has been concluded that as the monthly income increases the self-confidence approach increases. The parents who have consanguinity marriage are more desperate. It has been concluded that stress perceived by mothers who have CDS is higher than fathers.

This study has been carried out in Adiyaman, Turkey with a group of families, who have children with down syndrome (CDS), to investigate the despair levels of families and their parental attitudes on perception and coping with stress in August-October 2018. The population of the study consists from parents of 148 CDS who live in Adiyaman/Turkey. The sample group includes 82 volunteer fathers and mothers. Data has been collected by survey methodology. The survey has 4 stages. The first stage includes five specifications which aim to detect the demographical information. Second stage is “Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)”, third stage is “Overcoming the Stress Method Scale (OSMS)” and the last stage is “Despair Scale (DS)”. The obtained data have been summarized by frequency analysis, SPSS 15 suit of program was used to analyze the data. As the education level increases, the despair level decreases. The samples who have graduated from primary school or high school have low despair level but the samples who have graduated from university still have hope. When the income considered there is no difference at the perceived stress. But the despair level increases as the income decreases. It has been concluded that as the monthly income increases the self-confidence approach increases. The parents who have consanguinity marriage are more desperate. It has been concluded that stress perceived by mothers who have CDS is higher than fathers.