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Comparison of attachment styles in mother with intellectual disability and mothers of normal children. Abbas Nesayan Assistant professor, Department of Psychology, Human Science Faculty, University of Bojnord. introduction.
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Comparison of attachment styles in mother with intellectual disability and mothers of normal children AbbasNesayan Assistant professor, Department of Psychology, Human Science Faculty, University of Bojnord
introduction • parenting is a wonderful experience for most people, including identity and life style changes (Boström, Broberg & Hwang, 2010). Families are dynamic functional units that continuously move from steady and balanced positions to growth and change. • The birth of a child with a developmental disability creates a sharp gap in the family's balance which causes the families experience an existential problem (Kandel & Merrick, 2007).
introduction • Having children with intellectual disabilities impacts parents’ well-being (Kimura and Yamazaki, 2016). • intellectual disabilities can be defined as disabilities characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills that are present before age 18 (American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 2010). • Raising children with intellectual disabilities alters parents’ lives and negatively affects their health in ways such as increased risks for stress, depression, and anxiety (Gallagher, Phillips, Oliver, & Carroll, 2008).
introduction • Particularly, mothers have difficulty finding or keeping jobs, experience isolation, feel a lack of fulfillment, and have low self-esteem (Shearn & Todd, 2000). • At the same time, raising children with intellectual disabilities also provides parents with positive experiences such as an increased sense of purpose, priorities, spirituality, tolerance and understanding, personal growth and strength, expanded personal/social networks, and community involvement (Kimura and Yamazaki, 2016).
introduction • Adult attachment researchers have increasingly focused on the protective role of attachment security in coping with and adjusting to life’s adversities (Berant, Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007). • This role is particularly important in the case of long-term, persistent stressors, such as chronic illness and has been shown to be highly significant when an adult copes with the painful experience of raising a child who has a severe, life-threatening disease (Berant, Mikulincer, & Florian, 2003).
Introduction • In such cases, mothers seem to bear the brunt of the coping burden (Cohn, 1996); hence, their sense of attachment security is likely to be associated with both their own well-being and mental health and the socioemotional development of their children (Berant, Mikulincer and Shaver, 2007. • The purpose of this study was to compare the attachment style of mothers of intellectual disability children with mothers of normal children.
Method • This research was ex-post facto. The statistical population included all mothers of children with intellectual disability and mothers of normal children in Bojnord city. The sample included 100 normal child mothers and 75 mothers with intellectual disability. Purposive sampling was used to select mothers of children with intellectual disability and multi-stage clustering for selecting mothers with normal children. An adult attachment scale was used to collect data
Method • Revised Adult Attachment Scale • Adult attachment scale was first prepared in 1990 by Collins and Reid and revised in 1996. An adult attachment scale examines the way an individual evaluates his communication skills and style of his intimate relationship. This scale has 18 points that respondents in a 5-point Likert Scale indicate their acceptance or opposition to each of the phrases. This scale has three subscales: close, depend and anxiety. • To analyze the data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used.
Conclusion • The purpose of this study was to compare the attachment style of mothers of normal children with mothers of children with intellectual disability. The findings of the study showed that there is no significant difference between the attachment styles of normal mothers and mothers of children with intellectual disability.
