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Relationships between microsocial interaction, social support, family life crises and coping outcome of mothers with mentally retarded children

University of British Columbia

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationships between microsocial interaction, social support, family life crises and coping outcome of mothers with mentally retarded children. Sixty mother-retarded child pairs participated in this research. Measures were derived from direct observation of mother-child interaction and parent report measures of personal adjustment, marital adjustment, child behavior and adjustment, social support, community interaction and life crises. Principal component analyses were used to derive composite measures for sets of variables and the relationships of these composite measures, as well as some single measures, were analyzed by correlational methods and analyses of variance. Results indicated reciprocity of aversive microsocial interaction within mother-retarded child pairs. A strong negative correlation was obtained between maternal distress and marital adjustment. Aversive microsocial child behavior was marginally correlated with maternal distress but not with marital adjustment. Social support from family was negatively correlated with maternal distress and positively correlated with marital adjustment. Social support from friends was not correlated with either of these coping outcome variables. Maternal perception of the child was correlated with both maternal distress and marital adjustment, even when the effects of observed child behavior were partialled out. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to research on families with mentally retarded children, as well as social interactional research and coercion theory.

Text

2010-08-01

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27064

Psychology

University of British Columbia

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