The first purpose of the present study was to investigate differences between Asian-American and Caucasian mothers' psychological adaptation to having a child with developmental disabilities. A number of variables (initial stress, social support, coping strategies, value orientation, time since diagnosis of the child's disability, and socioeconomic status) thought to contribute to the adaptation were taken into account. The second purpose was to assess the relative contribution of each of the variables to maternal adaptation in each ethnic group. Finally, the unique effect of value orientation as a predictor of maternal adaptation was examined. / The subjects consisted of 37 Asian-American and 51 Caucasian mothers of children with developmental disabilities. They completed several self-report measures that were used to assess the variables of interests. / The results indicated that the Asian-American mothers of children with developmental disabilities were less well-adapted; experienced higher initial stress; received less support from persons outside the family; were more likely to accept the problem of having a child with developmental disabilities as a fact of life; and were less likely to express their emotions as a way of coping with the problem. The results further indicated that different variables were predictive of adaptation in the two ethnic groups. For the Asian-American mothers, value orientation, initial stress, and acceptance coping were the three predictors of maternal adaptation; for the Caucasian mothers, social support, value orientation, socioeconomic status, and distraction coping were the four predictors of adaptation. Finally, value orientation, a neglected element in the prevailing adaptation paradigm, turned out to contribute substantially to maternal adaptation even after several other variables that had previously been found to be more important in determining adaptation were statistically controlled. Implications of the findings for future research and social work interventions are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-11, Section: A, page: 4261. / Major Professor: Stanley Witkin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77040 |
| Contributors | Yee, Samyean., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 187 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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