Parenting Styles of Parents Having Children with and Without Disability: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The essence of parenting involves much more than simply rearing and caring for the child from birth to adulthood. Being a parent means giving your children the love, attention, direction, and encouragement they need to grow emotionally, socially, cognitively, and physically. And, for this, parents employ diverse ways, methods, and techniques to raise their kids in the most effective way possible, which in common language, understood as ‘parenting styles’. These parenting styles have a substantial impact on the quality of life of every child. Research states that a caring and supportive environment improves a child's general well-being, but an over-controlling or negligent environment might have the opposite effects. This indicates that parenting is not that easy, rather requires a lot of awareness, a positive attitude, and skills related to child-rearing and nurturing. While most parents find intrinsic joy, peace, and pleasure in parenthood, it may also occasionally be a stressful, frightening, and unsuccessful experience for some, especially when a couple has a child who deviates from normalcy. Research studies revealed that raising a child with a disability can be difficult and stressful for the parents, if not well-supported or guided. To explore the same, this research aims to study the parenting styles in general and present a comparative view between the parenting styles of parents having children with disability (CwD) and those without any disability. In the sample, parents of children without any disabilities (Cw/oD) were approached by adopting a random design whereas to make a sample of parents having CwD, a specific disability was selected. Based on the personal experience and knowledge, the researchers decided to select parents of children having hearing loss condition. A total of 100 parents were selected as a sample in the study, 50 parents of Cw/oD and 50 parents of CwD. ‘Parental Style Four Factor Questionnaire’ was used to gather data in the study. The questionnaire consisted of 32 items. The study reported that most of the parents of CwD were either authoritarian or uninvolved in their parenting style which reflected their strict, rigid, and controlling environment behavior at home with their kids. Whereas, their counterparts were found to be either permissive or authoritative in their parenting style. This was also assessed statistically by applying a t-test, a significant difference in the parenting style of parents of CwD and parents of Cw/oD was noticed on three dimensions i.e. authoritative, authoritarian, and uninvolved. Further on delving more into the responses of the participants, emotions like shock, denial, thinking, sadness, guilt, anger, disappointment, lack of control, and resentment were observed among the parents of CwD. The study suggests to different stakeholders to have orientation programs, guidance centers, mental health workshops, healthy parenting workshops, and discussion forums for the parents of CwD so that such issues may be highlighted, discussed and worked upon by the professionals to bring a healthy atmosphere at home.