INTELLECTUAL IMPAIRMENT AND EXPERIENCE OF EXTREME POVERTY IN A SINGLE PARENT FAMILY (CASE STUDY IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA CONTEXT)

Abstract

The article analyzes the issue of family resources in a family with a single father with mental retardation raising two adolescents in conditions of extreme poverty. The research methodology is based on the model of case study qualitative research within the phenomenological “life world” approaches. The study has an entire description of the father’s “life world” and the structural, constituent, and essential elements of his day-to-day parenting experience. It is shown that the family experience is struggling with extreme poverty within the conditions of severe social exclusion and is governed by the father's family history with a class nature. Current family resources (health, education, social, and economic) are characterized as being affected by different types of deficiency and dependence on external “donors”. The discussion is raising awareness of the role of special education in the process of structuring essential elements of the “life world” experience in such families, in general, and conditions of extreme poverty, in particular.