Coping and Coherence Among Parents With Disabled Children

Abstract

Investigated coping, sense of coherence, and family climate among parents in 78 families with disabled children and 83 control families. The parents with disabled children showed significantly more avoidant coping, lower sense of coherence, and less emphasis on family members' interrelations and personal growth than did the control parents. Significant discrepancies between mothers and fathers were found in three areas: avoidant coping, sense of coherence, and personal growth. Parents' avoidant coping was predicted negatively by parental education and the sense-of-coherence construct, and positively by active coping and family system maintenance. The results focus attention onto the implications of personal and familial resources for raising a disabled child.