Family Adaptation to Developmentally Delayed Children

摘要

This investigation had two major objectives: (a) Determining whether parents of adevelopmentally delayed child differ from control parents across measures of parent-child interaction attitudes, family status, coping resources, and perceived stress; and (b) identifying the degree of stress perceived by these families and the moderating effect of various coping resources on family adaptation. The hypothesis was that families with a developmentally delayed child report greater stress, and this stress adversely impacts both the family in general and its individual members. The findings reveal that there is a great heterogeneity in the family life, stress levels, and coping ability of families with young children with non-specific developmental delays, and having a child with developmental delays is likely to place one at more risk under conditions that might already by challenging, such as single parenting.