Acceptance of Their Children's Disability by Mothers of Preschool Children with Autism

Abstract

Studied differences in how mothers of children with developmental disabilities accept their child's diagnosis. Ss were 72 mothers of children with disabilities (55 had children with autistic disorder; 17 had children with Down syndrome). The mothers gave retrospective answers to a written questionnaire, including multiple-choice and free-essay items. Results show that there were significant differences in psychological reactions and acceptance of the diagnosis between mothers of children with autism vs Down syndrome. Mothers of children with autism took more time to accept the diagnosis than did those whose children had Down syndrome. Seven variables related to the difficulty of diagnosis were correlated with the differences between these 2 types of disability. Mothers of children with autism had 2 stages in their psychological reactions. The 1st stage occurred when the mothers faced significant challenges, starting at the time of detection and/or diagnosis. The 2nd stage occurred when recurrent problems challenged the mothers' acceptance of their child's disability, even after diagnosis and after they had reached a point of acceptance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)