Chinese fathers of children with intellectual disabilities: their perceptions of the child, family functioning, and their own needs for emotional support

Abstract

As more and more evidence accrues in support of family-centered approaches to disability services, parents’ experiences raising children with disabilities is receiving increasing attention internationally. The literature on parents of children with disabilities, however—whether intellectual disability (ID) or other chronic health conditions (OCHC)—tends to focus on mothers as the primary research subject. To address the paucity of research focused on fathers’ experiences of raising a child with disabilities, I surveyed over 4500 fathers of children with disabilities in Mainland China. The surveys focused on fathers’ perceptions of their children, their perceptions of family functioning, and their perceptions of their own needs for emotional support. Results derived from statistical analyses of the data suggest that fathers tend to believe their children with ID are harder to raise than other children, and that they more often do things that irritate them and make them feel angry. Fathers of children with ID also tend to perceive their family functioning as somewhat problematic. Generally, these fathers are disinclined to seek emotional support from outside their families, although fathers from the majority Han population and fathers who have greater than high school education are more likely to seek support than are fathers from minority ethnic groups and fathers with lower educational background. Comparisons are made with fathers of children with OCHC. Implications of the findings are identified and lines of further research suggested.