In this study, the concept of well being is established and a relationship among the important variables that affect the well being of mothers of children of developmental disability is modeled and verified using the structural equation. Degree of the...
In this study, the concept of well being is established and a relationship among the important variables that affect the well being of mothers of children of developmental disability is modeled and verified using the structural equation. Degree of the disability of children is hypothesized using the mothers' psychological resources that may affect the their well-being. They are as follow:
< Hypothesis 1> Degree of children's disability would affect the well-being of mother.
< Hypothesis 2> Degrees of children's disability would affect the Marital Satisfaction of mother.
< Hypothesis 3> Degrees of children's disability would affect the Family Cohesion
< Hypothesis 4> Family Cohesion would affect the well-being of mother.
< Hypothesis 5> Marital Satisfaction would affect the well-being of mother.
< Hypothesis 6> Degree of children's disability would affect the well-being of mother through Family Cohesion .
< Hypothesis 7> Degrees of children's disability would affect the well-being of mother through Marital Satisfaction.
< Hypothesis 8> Degrees of children's disability would indirectly affect the well-being of mother through Family Cohesion and Marital Satisfaction.
In order to verify these hypotheses, a questionary survey was conducted by distributing the questionaries to some selected organizations related to children of developmental disability and schools of special education. A total of 432 questionaries were collected from the mothers of children of developmental disability during the period of June 1 through July 3, 2008.
For the data analysis, general trends of the demographic social characteristics and background were examined through the frequency analysis of each variables. In order to confirm if the prerequisite condition of the structural equation is satisfied, validity test of the normality and multi collinearity was performed. Also, through the analysis of the confirmative factors, validity test of the structural concept of the measured variables was performed. A model of the structural equation was used for the verification of the theoretical model of relevant variables through the verification of the hypotheses on the relational structures among the degree of disabilities, Family Cohesion and well-being of the mothers of children of disability. For these analyses, the statistical package of SPSS/Win 5.0 and AMOS 6 was used.
Comprehensive conclusions of this study based on the verification of hypothesis are as follows:
First, it is shown in this study that mother's well-being is lowered as the children's developmental disability is more severe. This result implies that promotional programs for the well-being of mothers of children of severe disability should be actively provided of first priority.
Second, it is shown that the degree of disabilities of children would not affect the Marital Satisfaction of mothers, although it would discourage the mothers' well-being before marriage. This result implies that children of disabilities are not responsible for the problems of structural broken family such as family discord, divorce, and separation.
Third, it is shown in this study that Family Cohesion is lowered as the degree of children's disabilities is more severe. This result may be because mothers of children of developmental disability usually pay more attention to fostering their children than mothers of children of non-disability.
Fourth, it is shown that the well-being of mothers is enhanced as the Family Cohesion is stronger. This result implies that the well-being of mothers may be changed according to the Family Cohesion even in case of similar degrees of disabilities. This result may implies that strengthening the Family Cohesion program among various family support programs is necessary when the family support programs of children of developmental disability are implemented.
Fifth, well-being of mothers of children of severe disability can be enhanced as the Family Cohesion and Marital Satisfaction are higher. In order words, changes in the family structure such as family atmosphere can affect the level of well-being of mothers of children of disability.
In abstract, well-being of mothers of children of developmental disability can be enhanced as the family resources, that is the mothers' psychological resources, such as Family Cohesion and Marital Satisfaction , are strengthened. As the mothers' well-being is enhanced, they can be empowered, which in turn can make them be a healthy partner of specialists so that they can cooperatively construct effective family support programs for the children of disability and their families. Last, as the mothers are happy they can empower their family to make positive effects on the support of family of children of disability and eventually on the productive implementation of social welfare.
This study has a practical significance that, through the verification of the theory of well-being of mothers of children of developmental disability, a working model on their well-being has been developed by the quantitative analysis. It is hoped that this study can be a stimulus to encouraging similar studies on other types of disability.