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Influences on mothers' employment when children have disabilities
- Authors:
- GORDON Meg, CUSKELLY Monica, ROSENMAN Linda
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 5(3), September 2008, pp.203-210.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Empirical research has highlighted the constraints on mothers' workforce participation when children have disabilities, but the policies and associated strategies needed to address these issues have received less attention. Greater attention to explanatory theory and associated research is needed. The authors' paper identifies major explanatory concepts in studies of women's workforce participation, and examines the extent to which these have been tested in studying the workforce participation of mothers of children with disabilities. They also identify constructs and empirical research findings from the latter body of research that have implications for theories of all women's workforce participation. The analysis demonstrates that there are many potentially relevant constructs from theories of women's workforce participation that have not been applied to studies of mothers of children with disabilities. Similarly, some findings about the influence of disability-related factors on mothers' workforce participation have implications for operational constructs associated with theories of women's workforce participation. The authors' examination of theoretical frameworks and empirical research underscored the importance of exchange and cross-fertilization of ideas between disability-oriented research and that concerned with women's labour force participation.
The changing face of the ‘good mother’: trends in research into families with a child with intellectual disability, and some concerns
- Author:
- KNIGHT Kathryn
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 28(5), 2013, pp.660-673.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This article reviews changing perspectives in recent social science research into families of children with intellectual disability. These latest trends emphasise family resilience, adaptation, and transformation, with the focus predominantly on mothers and their ability to psychologically adjust to their caring challenges. A concern is that by concentrating on the adaptive strategies of mothers, researchers risk minimising the socio-political dimensions of this experience. The theme of the ‘good mother’ figures strongly in this research, linked to the limiting socio-cultural narratives available to mothers of children with intellectual disability that, it is argued, may condone their continuing marginalisation. (Publisher abstract)
Accentuate the positive to mitigate the negative: mother psychological coping resources and family adjustment in childhood disability
- Author:
- TRUTE Barry
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 35(1), March 2010, pp.36-43.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This study examined mothers' cognitive appraisal of the family impact of childhood disability and their positive affect as a psychological coping resource. Telephone interviews were held with 195 mothers of children with intellectual and developmental disability, in Alberta, Canada. Findings, via regression modelling, revealed that 35% of the variance in family adjustment was explained by mothers' positive cognitive appraisal of family impacts of childhood disability and by their positivity (ratio of positive to negative affect). After controlling for positivity, negative cognitive appraisal of family impacts of childhood disability was not significant. Family adjustment to childhood disability was associated with elements of strength in mothers' psychological coping – especially their ability to perceive positive family consequences of childhood disability and to maintain higher proportions of positive emotion in their daily activities. The author concluded that the results of this study provide support for the broaden-and-build theory to explain the role of positivity in mothers' coping and adjustment to childhood disability.
Maternal perceptions of care-giving for children with developmental disabilities in the United Arab Emirates
- Author:
- CRABTREE Sara Ashencaen
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 20(3), May 2007, pp.247-255.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This qualitative study discusses family care-giving of children with developmental disabilities in the United Arab Emirates. Findings were reviewed in terms of the influence of culture on gender norms governing parental behaviour and aspirations. An ethnographic approach is used in which parent participants were interviewed intensively. The data were then analysed commensurate with ethnographic methodology in which parental care was considered in terms of gender differentials, in addition to other factors. Although mothers carried the main burden of support, this is ameliorated by cultural interpretations of the role of motherhood as well as practical coping strategies. Discrimination towards disability as well as gender is evident although countered by maternal strategies of resistance. These indicate that daughters with disabilities are subject to oppressive attitudes and commensurate behaviour within the family setting, as well as in the wider society. However, such measures may in turn be challenged by mothers who demonstrate parental coping strategies that are both influenced by as well as subversive of cultural norms.
Assessing the needs of mothers with mentally retarded offspring
- Author:
- RABINOWITZ J.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 13(4), 1986, pp.804-822.
Reports on a study based on interviews.
Recurrent grief in mothering a child with an intellectual disability to adulthood: grieving is the healing
- Author:
- BROWN Judith M.
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Family Social Work, 21(1), 2016, pp.113-122.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Much of the literature on mothering a child with a disability focuses on grief in the context of diagnosis, with a paucity of longitudinal studies focusing on ongoing grief as the child moves through the life stages. This qualitative study explores the existence of recurrent grief within the lived experience of six women, in mothering their children with intellectual disability through to young adulthood. Informed by the differing theories of grief and disability, the study considers mothers' perception of the experience of recurrent grief as influenced by personal and societal factors, with a focus on its triggers, its manifestation and its amelioration. The findings have relevance to social work practice, policy and research in revealing the necessity for ongoing support and advocacy for mothers of children and young adults with intellectual disabilities. (Publisher abstract)
Family subtyping and early intervention
- Authors:
- MARGALIT Malka, AL-YAGON Michal, KLEITMAN Talia
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 3(1), March 2006, pp.33-41.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The goal of the study was to identify and differentiate subgroups among mothers whose infants were diagnosed as having a developmental disability. The sample consisted of 80 mothers from intact families in Israel whose infants had such diagnoses, most of whom were diagnosed with Down syndrome. All mothers were receiving early intervention services. Acknowledging the mothers' heterogeneous reactions to their situation, the study attempted to identify discrete family profiles, based on mothers' sense of coherence as a measure of personal strength and family cohesion as a measure of systemic support. Four family subtypes were identified. The authors examined experiences of stress, coping, and affect among these subgroups. Significant differences emerged among these four subgroups in mothers' stress experience, as well as their negative and positive moods. Relations between mothers' strengths and their needs are discussed as related to the early intervention program.
When mum died
- Authors:
- HOLLINS Sheila, SIRELING Lester
- Publisher:
- Gaskell
- Publication year:
- 2004
- Pagination:
- 28p., ill.
- Place of publication:
- London
- Edition:
- 3rd
Includes information on how people are likely to react when someone is very ill and to their death. It explores difficult emotions, possible physical feelings and behaviour changes. Guidance is given on how to relate to a bereaved person and how to answer the questions ‘How do we feel when someone dies?’, ‘What happens after someone dies?’ and ‘How long does it take to get back to normal?’. There is advice for support staff and carers of those with learning disabilities (including how to formulate guidelines and a sample bereavement questionnaire), plus information on useful written resources and bereavement organisations that can offer further help.
The right to choose
- Author:
- CROSS Gill
- Journal article citation:
- Nursing Times, 28.9.94, 1994, pp.60-61.
- Publisher:
- Nursing Times
Describes the care given to a women with a learning disability who was determined to have a child of her own.
Growing up with Down's Syndrome
- Author:
- SHEPPERDSON Billie
- Publisher:
- Cassell Educational
- Publication year:
- 1988
- Pagination:
- 216p., tables.
- Place of publication:
- London