Parental Attitude towards Disability and Gender in the Nigerian Context: Implications for Conselling

Mary Banke Iyabo Omoniyi

doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p2255

Abstract

The study was undertaken to investigate the attitudes of parents towards their children gender and handicap conditions. The purposive, stratified sampling technique was adopted. The samples comprised of 60 parents (30 Fathers and 30 Mothers). A 35 item Parental Attitude Scale Instrument constructed by the researcher was used to assess information from the respondents. The instrument possess a high face and content validity and a test-re-test reliability coefficient of 0.96. The results revealed significant differences related to gender of the children on various domains of the scale: There is a significant difference between the fathers and mothers’ attitudes with father exhibiting more favourable attitudes towards male children. Mothers attitudes were also significant on the domain of over protection and acceptance. Counselling focused specifically towards developing healthy parental attitudes which would in turn result in acceptance of the child disability irrespective of gender were offered. The importance of strengthening the social support network of these children’s families was also reiterated. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p2255

Highlights

Cursory observations of the earliest writings of Man-Chinese, Egyptian, Hebrew and Greek- provide striking case histories of disturbed individuals and attitudes of their people towards them
The purpose of this study is to explore parental attitudes towards children with disabilities, their education and gender discrimination
This finding could be attributed to the mother’s expectation of an ideal child, and may be a reflection of the mother’s mourning for the lost “ideal” child. Another could be since child care in the Nigeria context almost exclusively rests on mothers, the intensive contact could be leading to maternal burn-out or fatigue, and this could in turn probably lead to unfavourable attitudes towards the child

Summary

Introduction

Cursory observations of the earliest writings of Man-Chinese, Egyptian, Hebrew and Greek- provide striking case histories of disturbed individuals and attitudes of their people towards them. According to Kanner (1994), it was customary in Rome for the elite to keep those they referred to as “fools” and “jester” for the amusement of the household and its guests. He further reported that many owners of handicapped persons, mentally retarded children, acquired greatness and fame as a result of their possessions. He reiterated that all such children did not fare well, as chains, cages or sentences of death were the fate of many, while others were left alone to roam and care for themselves and eventually died

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