THE SITUATION OF DISABLED CHILDREN IN FAMILIES AT RISK: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the possibilities of a sociological research of the situation of child disability and family at risk. The author analyzes the growing indicators of child disability in Russia: the number of children with disabilities, distribution by sex and age, nosology, the level of disability in the regions of the Russian Federation, as well as indicators of inclusion (visiting educational organizations, leisure activities). The assessment of the indicators representing satiation of families at risk is carried out on the basis of the deprivation methodology of the Institute of Socio-Economic Problems of the Population of the Russian Academy of Sciences (income level, living conditions, pedagogical and social competence of parents, consumption of educational, medical, social services, psychological climate in the family). The author comes to the conclusion that a theoretical study of the position of a disabled child in a family at risk can be carried out within the framework of the structural-functional theory, structuralism theories, theory of social conflicts, symbolic interactionism, social constructivism, phenomenology and ethnomethodology, behaviorism, neo-Freudianism, etc., which provides wide opportunities for building a theoretical model of the mutual influence of family dysfunction and child disability. The article also presents the results of a secondary analysis of data from a public opinion survey on child disability obtained by questionnaire survey (N = 1618) and in-depth interviews (N = 16). The author presents the results of his own empirical research: a questionnaire survey of specialists working with families of disabled children (N = 101, respondents are employees of educational, medical, social organizations) and interviews of social workers (N = 9, respondents are employees of social service organizations). Based on the analysis of the collected data on the situation within the family, the author derives the modal characteristics of a family at risk and the position of a disabled child in it. As important factor of social exclusion, the author calls the isolation of the family, its closeness and obstruction of interventions by social protection institutions.