Attitude to Support the Child's Subjective Position and Posttraumatic Growth in Parents of Children with Disabilities

The paper considers the birth of a child with disability as a crisis and traumatic situation for parents. It focuses on the importance of cooperative orientation in the upbringing process, both for the child’s mental health and social adaptation and for overcoming the crisis and making post-traumatic personal growth in the parents possible. We present results of the validation of the ‘Parental Support of the Disabled Child’s Subjective Position’ questionnaire aimed at identifying the parent’s attitude to recognise and support the child’s independence and constructive initiative in various activities and provide him with the necessary assistance in his zone of proximal development. The factor structure was tested on a sample of 201 subjects (mothers of children with mental disabilities) aged 25 to 50 years (average age 39.6 years) by means of confirmatory factor analysis. As a result, a version that included one scale of 12 points was substantiated (Cronbach alpha 0.8). Converged validity was assessed on a sample of 107 subjects (mothers of children with disabilities) using the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory by R. Tedeschi and L. Calhoun in the adaptation by M.Sh. Magomed-Eminova and the World Assumptions Scale by R. Janoff-Bulman in the adaptation of O.A. Kravtsova. A positive relationship was found between the indicators of the ‘Parental Support of the Disabled Child’s Subjective Position’ questionnaire and the indicators of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, as well as with the basic assumptions concerning the benevolence of the world, self worth and the ability to handle emerging problems. It was also revealed that more emotionally stable parents (with low scores on the Beck Depression Inventory) support their child's subjective position more frequently. The findings are illustrated by excerpts from structural interviews with mothers of children with disabilities.

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