Empirical Study on the Empowerment of Families Raising Children with Severe Motor and Intellectual Disabilities in Japan: The Association with Positive Feelings towards Child Rearing

Hiroshi Fujioka,Atsushi Ieshima,Akira Yoneyama,Ryuta Tanaka,Tatsuyuki Ohto,Kiyoko Kamibeppu,Rie Wakimizu

doi:10.4236/health.2015.712188

Abstract

Background: “Children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities” refers to children with markedly limited activity due to severe overlapping of physical and intellectual disabilities. The physical and mental burden placed on families raising severely disabled children, particularly the primary caregivers, is great in home settings. For families to effectively utilize services and over-come child rearing problems, the families themselves need the “strength” to cooperate with others for the purpose of raising a severely disabled child. The ultimate goal of family support is to enable such families to achieve satisfaction and self-growth in child rearing. Methods: We used a questionnaire to survey 75 primary caregivers to empirically elucidate the empowerment and positive feelings towards child rearing of families raising children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities and the related factors. The t-test and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient were used to examine the association with bivariates. A multiple regression analysis was conducted for empowerment and positive feelings. Results: Results revealed that life events, livelihood, awareness of social support and the child’s sleep problems were factors related to empowerment. Of these, awareness of social support from outside of the family was found to contribute the most to empowerment. Furthermore, improvement and maintenance of positive feelings towards child rearing reaffirmed the existence of empowerment in addition to reducing negative feelings towards child rearing and ensuring social support. Conclusions: Raising children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities requires specialist knowledge and skills. Support from professionals to empower the entire family is therefore important in order to strengthen positive feelings towards child rearing.

Highlights

“Children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities” (SMID) is a term defined with reference to Japan’s unique legislation and refers to “children with markedly limited activity due to severe overlapping of physical and intellectual disabilities” [1]
This study was designed to empirically elucidate the empowerment and positive feelings towards child rearing of families raising severely disabled children in Japan and the related factors
Given that the number of severely disabled children living at home is estimated to be 28,000 [1], it is likely that profoundly severely disabled children and quasi-severely disabled children account for at least about 20% of these severely disabled children living at home

Summary

Introduction

“Children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities” (SMID) is a term defined with reference to Japan’s unique legislation and refers to “children with markedly limited activity due to severe overlapping of physical and intellectual disabilities” [1]. Children with severe disabilities have markedly delayed development and low spare physical capacity, which makes them susceptible to complications when they are ill and leads them to require diverse and highly individualized care. This is why the stress of families with severely disabled children is very serious [6]. This study was designed to empirically elucidate the empowerment and positive feelings towards child rearing of families raising severely disabled children in Japan and the related factors

Methods

Results

Conclusion