25 research outputs found
Assessing intellectual performance of culturally different, Inuit children with the WISC--R.
Effective Life Management in Parents of Children with Disabilities: A Cross-National Extension
This study is part of an on-going research program exploring life management
in families of children with a variety of disability characteristics and age ranges.
Scorgie, Wilgosh, and McDonald (1996) used a qualitative, interview methodology
to identify effective strategies, qualities, and transformational outcomes for
parents of children with disabilities who had been identified, by service agencies,
as having effective life management strategies. A larger group of parents, from similarly
identified, effectively managing families, was surveyed (Scorgie, Wilgosh, &
McDonald, 1997), using the Life Management Survey (LMS) developed from the
nine themes found in the qualitative study, supporting the original findings. A replication
of the LMS survey study (Wilgosh, Scorgie, & Fleming, 2000) confirmed the
previous findings with parents who were not preselected as effective life managers.
In fact, the consistency across the three Canadian studies supported examination
of family life management cross-nationally. The present study shows that Catholic
Italian parents of children with disabilities have patterns of effective life management
strategies, parent qualities, and parent transformational outcomes which
characterize them and are similar to those of the Canadian parents. However, in
the Italian study, some differences were found related to type of disability, emphasizing
the need for qualified professional support, guidance and counselling,
focused on the unique needs of each family, as related to the child\u2019s disability
needs
Life Management and quality of life of parents of children with diverse disabilities
This paper reports on the second of two studies which involved a cross-national application of the Life Management Scale (LMS; Scorgie, Wilgosh, & McDonald, 1997), developed in Alberta, Canada, to families of children with disabilities in Italy. The first study (Wilgosh, Nota, Scorgie, & Soresi, 2004) identified similarities in effective life management among families of children with disabilities cross-nationally, as well as some differences specific to disability groups. In order to increase our knowledge of both similarities as well as differences among these families, the Italian data collection was extended to additional disability groups, including Down syndrome, autism, visual and auditory impairment, and a control group of families with no children having disabilities. As well as examining effective life management (LMS), family self-efficacy beliefs (How much faith do I have in myself? Parents' questionnaire; Soresi, Nota, & Sgaramella, 2003) and quality of life (My life as a parent; Soresi, Nota, & Sgaramella, 2003) were considered. As with our first study, findings indicated that there were broad commonalities across family groupings, as well as differences between disability groupings, regarding the effective life management strategies and the interrelationships among life management strategies, parent self-efficacy, and quality of life ratings