This thesis is for studying the change process of the parents'psychological attitude toward their handicapped children which showshow they have come to accept their handicapped children.
For the research, 100 parents of the handicapped were individua...
This thesis is for studying the change process of the parents'psychological attitude toward their handicapped children which showshow they have come to accept their handicapped children.
For the research, 100 parents of the handicapped were individuallyinterviewed and the materials obtained from them were carefullyanalyzed. And the statistical data were compiled by the percentageand x' of the frequency of the individual reactions.
The summerized results are as follows.
First, it appeared that the change process has some stages insequence; shock-Udenial->gui1t -Uacceptance.
If the parents' reactions are shown by the percentage, it's like this;uncertainty(43%), shock(100%), denia1(89%), gui1t(78%), anger(39%),and acceptance (97%).
But the stage of uncertainty and anger couldn't be regarded as thegeneral reactions because they were below 50%, And so it appearedthat the parents of the cerebral palsied children accept their children after passing through the several stages of psychologiealchange.
Seeond, the time taken from the birth of the handicapped ch'ldto the acceptanee appeared to be 4 years and 5 months, and whendivided according to each stage, the time taken from the stage ofuncertainty to the stage of shock appeared to be 2 years, and 4years and 3 months from the stage of shock to the stage ofacceptance. So it took the parents 2 years to recognize theirchildren as the handicapped and after the stage of shock it tookthem 4 years and 5 months to accept disability.
Third, each stage has the reasons of its own.
(1) Denial, not believing the diagnosis itself (48.3%), anticipating theresults of treatment (42.7%).
(2) Guilt: not giving them early treatment (29.5%), not receivingoperation when they gave birth to them (25.6%).
(3) Anger; "faults of the doctor and rancor against God" (35.9%),inferiority (28.2%) and unfairness, etc.
(4) Acceptance; having no choice, "considering the handicappedchildren's growth conditions and abnormal behaviors" (33%), "thediagnosis results of various hospitals" (18.6%), "examples of otherhandicapped children", and "the religious faith", etc.
Fourth, to confirm the relations between the change processand the various factors, such as parents' schooling, financial power,family condition, and order of birth, the inspectation of evidence
were affected by means of x" , there was no particular relation.This fact shows that the parents accept and raise their handicappedchildren with the same maternal affection irrespective of variousfactors. Owing to this, the time taken and the reasons foracceptance appeared to be very similar.
Fifth, some problems appeared while the parents had broughtup their handieapped children.
(1) As the problem of treatment, the traffic problem appeared to bevery serious whech arises when the parents had to bring theirchildren to hospital (42%), and the parents' agony due to theirchildren's pain during treatment appeared to be important, too(23%)
(2) As the problem of daily life, the parents' mental trouble due totheir handicapped children (34%) and the restriction of time (33%),etc. appeared to be serious.
(3) The time when the parents feel most pitiful about their childrenis when they are alone (37%) and they have difficulty in doingsomething in spite of their endeavor owing to their disability (32%)
(4) It appeared that family troubles arise when other membersimpute the responsibility to mother (37%) and when they disagreewith each other about their childrens' education and treatment (35%)
(5) As the future problems of the children, job and living (51%), andmarriage and self-independence (25%) appeared to be most serious.
Though I tried my best in revealing the change process of theparents' psychological attitude to ward their cerebral palsid children,
I think other studies on the parents of other disability must befollowed in order to know the acceptance process of every parent ofthe handicapped children.
Therefore, those studies must be, if possible, longitudinal study, sothat we can closely analyze the change process of theirpsyehological attitude. If these studies continue, their results willcontribute to the acceptance, the early remedial education of thehandicapped children.