Mothers Of Non-disabled Children Research Articles

Disability Is Not a Burden: The Relationship between Early Childhood Disability and Maternal Health Depends on Family Socioeconomic Status.

Narratives rooted in ableism portray disabled children as burdens on their families. Prior research highlights health disparities between mothers of disabled children and mothers of nondisabled children, but little is known about how socio-structural contexts shape these inequities. Using longitudinal data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n = 2,338), this study assesses whether the relationship between early childhood disability and maternal health varies by household socioeconomic status (SES). Findings reveal that, on average, mothers of children disabled by age five report worse health than mothers of nondisabled children; however, this pattern is only evident among lower SES mothers and disappears for higher SES mothers. Contextualizing the findings within the systemic ableism literature highlights how-instead of portraying disabled children as burdens on their families-scholars and policymakers should focus on how ableism and poverty burden disabled people and their families in ways that pattern health risks.

Maternal Employment Trajectories and Caring for an Infant or Toddler with a Disability

Mothers caring for an infant or toddler continue to face barriers in returning to work after child birth. Mothers caring for an infant or toddler with a disability, however, may face even greater barriers. This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the employment costs for this group of mothers using a novel Australian administrative data set. The employment patterns of mothers with and without a disabled infant or toddler are compared both before and after child birth. The data follow 7,600 mothers on a bi-weekly basis for the entire period 12 months before and the 24 months after child birth and contain information on the disability status of the child, measures of employment and the intensity of employment. I find that mothers of disabled toddlers and infants suffer employment disadvantages relative to mothers of non-disabled children. The employment gaps grow from approximately six percentage points shortly after their children are born to 14-17 percentage points when their children are 12 to 24 months old. The employment gaps exist for full-time employment as well as for short part-time employment.

Maternal employment trajectories and caring for an infant or toddler with a disability

ABSTRACTMothers caring for an infant or toddler continue to face barriers in returning to work after child birth. Mothers caring for an infant or toddler with a disability, however, may face even greater barriers. This article contributes to the literature by exploring the employment costs for this group of mothers using a novel Australian administrative data set. The employment patterns of mothers with and without a disabled infant or toddler are compared both before and after child birth. The data follow 7600 mothers on a bi-weekly basis for the entire period 12 months before and the 24 months after child birth and contain information on the disability status of the child, measures of employment and the intensity of employment. I find that mothers of disabled toddlers and infants suffer employment disadvantages relative to mothers of non-disabled children. The employment gaps grow from approximately 6 percentage points shortly after their children are born to 14–17 percentage points when their children are 12–24 months old. The employment gaps exist for full-time employment as well as for short part-time employment.

ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION IN MOTHERS OF DISABLED AND NON-DISABLED CHILDREN

Abstract Objectives: To find the prevalence of anxiety and depression in mothers of disabled and non-disabled children and to find the association of anxiety and depression with demographic characteristics in district Sheikhupura. Method: A cross sectional comparative study was conducted to find differences in the level of anxiety and depression in both groups of mothers i.e. among mothers of disabled and non-disabled children. A con-venient sampling technique was used to select 340 mothers belonging to both groups (n = 170 in each group). Urdu version of Hospital Anxiety and Depres-sion Scale (HADS) was used to assess anxiety and depression in mothers. Data was analyzed using ANC-OVA (SPSS version 17). Results: The Results of ANCOVA revealed statisti-cally significant differences (p < .001) in the level of anxiety and depression in both groups of mothers. Ramzan N. 1 M.Phil Psychology Government Special Education Centre, 142 - Asif Park, Main GT Road, Ferozwala, District Sheikhupura, Punjab, Pakistan Minhas K. 2 Masters in Special Education Government Special Education Centre, 142 - Asif Park, Main GT Road, Ferozwala, District Sheikhupura, Punjab, Pakistan Majority of mothers (78%) belonging to children with disability had anxiety. Only 52% mothers belonging to non-disabled children had anxiety. Similarly, as com-pared to 46% mothers of non-disabled children, 76% mothers belonging to children with disability had dep-ression. Correlation analysis revealed a significantly positive relationship of anxiety and depression with mothers' age ( p < .05) and statistically significant in-verse relationship with disabled child's age, mothers' educational ( p < .01) and family income status. Conclusion: As the disabled child advances in age, mother better understands the demands of raising a disabled child and thus can cope with these demands affectively and with lesser anxiety. Implications of the study would assist psychologists in devising techni-ques for reducing level of anxiety and depression in mothers of disabled children. Key words: Anxiety, Depression, Children with dis-abilities

Self-Esteem of Greek Mothers of Children with Intellectual Disabilities

The present study assessed the impact that children with intellectual disabilities have on their mothers' self-esteem. It also examined the differences in self-esteem between mothers of children with intellectual disabilities and mothers of non-disabled children. The study sample consisted of 50 mothers of children with intellectual disabilities living in Central Greece and a comparison group of 50 mothers of non-disabled children. Two instruments were used for the data collection: (a) a questionnaire for biographic information and (b) an adaptation of the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory. Results indicated significantly lower self-esteem for the mothers of children with intellectual disabilities. Moreover, the best predictor of maternal self-esteem in the disabled group was the size of the family.

Economic and Psychological Benefits from Employment: The experiences and perspectives of mothers of disabled children

This qualitative research explores the perspectives and experiences of employed mothers of disabled children particularly with respect to the potential benefits of employment. Forty families with at least one disabled child, representing a variety of family structures and work situations, participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings of this study clearly illustrate that the economic, psychological and social benefits for mothers of disabled children from participation in paid work are strikingly similar to those for employed mothers of non-disabled children. This suggests that the low level of labour force participation of mothers of disabled children in comparison with other mothers is most likely a consequence of the inherent ideological and structural barriers these women face, rather than their qualitatively differing needs. Streamlining of the benefits system, integration both within and between health, education and social services, increased flexibility in the workplace, and dialogue and co-ordination between all of these elements, may go some way to providing the support these mothers need.

Stress, appraisal, and coping in mothers of disabled and nondisabled children.

The cognitive-behavioral model of stress and coping provided the framework for this study of mothers of physically disabled children (n = 69) and mothers of nondisabled children (n = 63). The first aim was to test for differences between groups in responses to stressful parenting events. As hypothesized, mothers of disabled children reported higher levels of depressive symptomatology. Differences in psychological distress and health status approached significance. The second aim was to explore the mediating influences of coping strategies and cognitive appraisals. As predicted, emotion-focused coping was related to increased psychological distress in mothers of disabled children whereas problem-focused coping was associated with decreased distress. Both relationships were significant even after controlling for differences in type of parenting stressor. Hierarchical regressions showed that 58 and 25% of the variance in psychological distress was explained by the independent variables; however, the predictors were different for the two groups of mothers. Factors that may explain the differential effectiveness of coping and appraisal, and clinical implications of this study are discussed.

What Causes Stress for Mothers of Children with MBD?

Adapting the paradigm developed by Richard Lazarus, parenting stress and coping were studied among mothers of 6-9-year-old children (n = 42) with different symptoms of Minimal Brain Dysfunction (MBD) (hyperkinesis, perceptual or motor deficits, learning disabilities or speech disorders) and among mothers of non-disabled children (n = 42) matched for age, sex, social status of the family and marital status. Mothers of children with MBD were found to experience more parenting difficulties and more negative cognitive appraisals of their stakes in parenting than their matched controls. The mothers of children with hyperkinesis and perceptual or motor deficits considered their mastery lower and experienced less positive affects than their matched controls. The mothers of children with speech disorders experienced less positive affects than their matched controls. Mothers of children with both few and several symptoms experienced more parenting difficulties in the child domain than their matched controls. Mothers of children with several symptoms considered their mastery lower and experienced less positive affects; mothers of children with few symptoms appraised their stakes in parenting more negatively than their matched controls. No significant differences were found between mothers of children with MBD with few and several symptoms.

Parenting stress, child behavior problems, and dysphoria in parents of children with autism, down syndrome, behavior disorders, and normal development

Abstract We assessed differences in parental reports of parenting stress, child behavior problems, and dysphoria in 150 families who had children with autism (n = 30), behavior disorders (n = 30), Down syndrome (n = 30), or normal development (n = 60). We measured stress with the Parenting Stress Index, child behavior problems with the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, and dysphoria with the Beck Depression Inventory. We controlled data for sociodemographic differences across groups, and results indicated the following: (1) Parents of children with autism and behavior disorders experienced statistically and clinically higher levels of parenting stress than parents in the other two groups. (2) Parents of children with behavior disorders reported that their children presented behavioral difficulties that were statistically and clinically more intense and numerous than those of all other children. (3) Mothers of children with autism and behavior disorders experienced statistically and clinically higher levels of dysphoria than mothers in the other two groups, which appeared to be specifically related to the stresses of parenting exceptional children rather than to personal dysfunction. In contrast, mothers of children with Down syndrome did not differ from mothers of nondisabled children on any of the measures. Finally, no major effect of the children's age or gender was found across the four groups, except for the fact that mothers of younger (less than 7 yrs, 5 mos.) autistic children reported greater dysphoria than mothers in the other three groups.

Mothers' Evaluations of Their Learning-Disabled Children

Mothers of learning-disabled and nondisabled children were interviewed to determine their perceptions of their child's strengths and weaknesses, causal attributions for these strengths and weaknesses, predictions for future performance, and evaluations of their child relative to other children. In comparison with mothers of nondisabled children, mothers of learning-disabled children described their children more negatively on each of the areas. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the success of intervention programs.

Mothers' Attributions for their Learning Disabled Child's Successes and Failures

The attributions of mothers of learning disabled and nondisabled children about the causes of their child's successes and failures were assessed. The results indicated that, compared to mothers of nondisabled children, the mothers of learning disabled children attributed successes less to ability and more to luck, while attributing failures more to a lack of ability and less to bad luck. Responses indicated that mothers of learning disabled children were aware of their child's attributions for performances in reading, and that they belittled their own ability to make things run smoothly at home. Results are discussed in terms of ways in which parents may foster more adaptive attributions in their children.