Doživljaj samoga sebe i okoline kod roditelja djece urednog razvoja i roditelja djece s razvojnim teškoćama

Abstract

Roditeljstvo djece s teškoćama donosi brojne izazove, a visoka razina stresa se povezuje s nedostatnom stručnom podrškom (Paster, Brandwein, Walsh, 2009). Nadalje, roditelji djece s razvojnim teškoćama često doživljavaju neuspjeh te svoje kompetencije u kontekstu roditeljstva nerijetko interpretiraju nerealno negativno (Kralj, 2012). S obzirom na oskudnost istraživačkih inicijativa na ovu temu, cilj rada je provjeriti postoje li razlike u samoprocjeni različitih životnih segmenata između roditelja djece s teškoćama i roditelja djece urednog razvoja. Istraživanje je provedeno tijekom projekta na kojem su se provodile aktivnosti osnaživanja roditelja djece s teškoćama i jačanja njihovih kapaciteta za bolji plasman na tržište rada. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo ukupno 60 roditelja - 30 roditelja koji imaju djecu s teškoćama i 30 roditelja djece urednog razvoja. Za potrebe istraživanja sastavljen je anketni upitnik u kojem je korištena skala Likertovog tipa od 1 do 5. S ciljem utvrđivanja razlika između navedenih skupina ispitanika korišten je neparametrijski test sume rangova (Mann Whitney U test). Utvrđeno je da postoje razlike u samoprocjeni osobnog zadovoljstva i vlastite uspješnosti u korist roditelja koji imaju djecu urednog razvoja, ali je isto tako utvrđeno da u ostalim segmentima njihove samoprocjene (kao što je npr. težnja za napretkom, pozitivan stav, zadovoljstvo razinom vlastitih postignuća/ciljeva, itd.) ne postoje značajne razlike između dvije navedene skupine. Dobiveni rezultati ukazuju na pozitivan stav prilikom suočavanja s različitim izazovnim životnim situacijama kojeg je moguće tumačiti kroz postojanje vlastite osobnosti pojedinca te nizom individualnih događaja koji ga kroz život određuju (Lacković-Grgin, 2011), a ne pripadnosti jednoj od skupina.Parenting of children with developmental disabilities brings many challenges and stressful situations that are related to insufficient professional support (Paster, Brandwein, Walsh, 2009). Furthermore, parents of children with developmental disabilities often experience failure, which causes unreal interpretations regarding their role as parents. Due to the limited initiatives in this research area, the focus of this paper was on comparison of two different groups of parents - parents of children with developmental disabilities and parents who have typically developing children, with the emphasis on their own experience in different life segments. The study included 60 parents, 30 parents of children with developmental disabilities and 30 parents of typically developing children. A Likert scale was used in the research and respondents specified their level of agreement with a statement on a five-point scale. Since the aim was to determine if there was a difference between the two independent groups of parents, the non parametric rank-sum test (Mann-Whitney U test) was used. The results showed that there were significant differences between those two groups related to self-competence and their own perception regarding success, in favour of parents with typically developing children. Furthermore, no differences were found between parents who have children with developmental disabilities and parents who have typically developing children in any of the other domains that were observed (e.g. striving for progress, a positive attitude, productivity and achievements). The obtained results indicate a positive attitude in dealing with various challenging life situations, which could be explained through the existence of one’s own personality and a series of individual events that determine an individual through life (Lacković- Grgin, 2011), whereas belonging to a particular group does not need to be taken into account.