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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.
Challenging the myths and redressing the missteps in family research
- Author:
- CUSKELLY Monica
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 6(2), June 2009, pp.86-88.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Families of children with disabilities have been the subject of a number of myths, some of which have been introduced and promulgated by researchers influenced by cultural norms that may incline them to ask questions in particular ways and which may result in the institutionalisation of ideas and methods, rather than subjecting established beliefs and perspectives to scrutiny. Only relatively recently, for example, has the conviction that only negative consequences will be experienced by families with a child with a disability been challenged. Research questions and instruments or approaches must allow for positive experiences and outcomes. In addition, often family research has failed to recognise the importance of cultural differences. One example of this can be found in assumptions of the applicability of instruments used in family research across different cultural groups. The capacity of instruments to reflect the constructs being measured must be established before they can be used confidently across cultures. In addition, the relationships between constructs must be tested rather than assumed. Finally, before intervention programs or approaches that have been developed by one culture are adopted or applied to another, their fit with the attitudes, beliefs, and resources of the latter culture should be established.