Parental Adaptation to Out-of-Home Placement of a Child with Severe or Profound Developmental Disabilities

• Published in: American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities Vol. 119; no. 3; pp. 203 - 219
• Main Authors: Jackson, Jeffrey B, Roper, Susanne Olsen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities 01.05.2014; American Association of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological - physiology; Adjustment (to Environment); Adolescent; Adult; Anxiety; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Children; Children & youth; Coping; Developmental disabilities; Developmental Disabilities - nursing; Disability; Education; Families & family life; Family (Sociological Unit); Family environment. Family history; Fear; Female; Grounded Theory; Group Homes; Households; Humans; Independent Living; Intellectual Disability - nursing; Interviews; Male; Medical sciences; Methods; Middle Aged; Modeling (Psychology); Models, Psychological; Mothers; Nursing Homes; Parent Attitudes; Parent Participation; Parent School Relationship; Parents; Parents & parenting; Parents - psychology; Placement; Private Agencies; Psychological Patterns; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychotherapy; Qualitative Research; Rating Scales; Research Methodology; Residential Care; Residential Programs; Resistance (Psychology); Severe Disabilities; Severe Mental Retardation; Severity (of Disability); Severity of Illness Index; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Stress Management; Stress Variables; Stress, Psychological - etiology; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Therapists; Young Adult; United States; North America; America; United States > US; Social environment; Human; Parent; Mental health; adaptation; Developmental disorder; Mental retardation; Stress; children with developmental disabilities; Grounded theory; Psychological adjustment; Intellectual deficiency; Family environment; Qualitative analysis; Coping; placement; Child; Public health; coping
• ISSN: 1944-7515; 1944-7558
• DOI: 10.1352/1944-7558-119.3.203

Utilizing grounded theory qualitative research methods, a model was developed for describing parental adaptation after voluntary placement of a child with severe or profound developmental disabilities in out-of-home care. Interviews of parents from 20 families were analyzed. Parents' cognitive appraisals of placement outcomes were classified as either inducing emotional stress (i.e., guilt, sadness, fear and worry, anger and frustration, and uncertainty) or relief. Parental appraisals of responses to placement by children, extended family, and friends were identified as factors affecting the parents' adaptation to placement. The primary coping methods used by parents to decrease emotional stress and increase relief consisted of reappraisals regarding the necessity of placement, involvement in the child's life, psychotherapy, and the passage of time.