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Relationships between parental attributes and their coping with children having special needs
Author
Lim, Kit Kwan
Supervisor
Chong, Wan Har
Abstract
This study examined the relationship between parental attributes and their coping outcomes when they are faced with managing and raising a child with special needs. Studies with chronically ill patients, typically developing children with behavioral issues, and children with high functioning Autism such as Asperger Syndrome have found that benefit finding was associated with positive coping outcomes; whereas dysfunctional attributions about children’s misbehaviors and dysfunctional parenting styles were associated with negative parental coping outcomes. Research with parents of special needs children with moderately to severely impaired functioning is limited. Thus, this study sought to understand the relationships between these parental attributes and coping outcomes of adaptive or maladaptive coping strategies used, psychological wellbeing and parental efficacy in this population. A secondary focus was to see how 2 child characteristics, namely ASD diagnosis and behavioral concerns, impacted on these relationships. Using a cross-sectional research design, 302 parents, mostly mothers (78.8%), of children with special needs responded to the invitation to participate in an anonymous paper pencil survey. The age of the parents ranged from 17 to 62 years old. The children’s age ranged from 1 year to 16 years of age. About 60% of them had children with the primary diagnosis of autism; the remaining did not have the diagnosis of autism, but had multiple disabilities including intellectual disabilities. All the children were enrolled in the local early intervention centers or special education schools. Based on parental reports, 70.9% indicated their children had behavioral concerns, and 27.5% did not report any such concerns. This study found that all the parental attributes were significantly correlated with the coping outcomes of positive and negative affect, parental efficacy and maladaptive coping in the expected directions. In addition, ASD diagnosis appeared not to be a significant factor in differentiating parents on these attributes and coping outcomes. Instead, existence of behavioral concerns was linked to negative parental attributes and coping outcomes. After controlling for child characteristics of Diagnosis and Behavioral Concerns, benefit finding was found to be a predictor for 4 out of 5 of the coping outcomes, namely, positive affect, negative affect, parental efficacy and adaptive coping. Dysfunctional parent-casual attributions predicted negative affect, parental efficacy and maladaptive coping. Over-reactive parenting style predicted only positive affect; whereas hostile parenting style predicted maladaptive coping. The findings suggested new areas of intervention and counseling focus that look into modifying parental attributes. A few limitations of this study were also raised, which in turn, pointed to new avenues of academic and action research.
Date Issued
2013
Call Number
RJ506.A9 Lim
Date Submitted
2013