Psychiatry and Psychology

Biography

Biography: Uzma Saleem

Abstract

The research was designed to study the parental attitude towards their physically handicapped children and also the perception of the physically handicapped children about their family support towards their parents. Sample of the study included 30 children, both male and female equally, and 30 parents. A five-point Likert type Parent Attitude Scale developed by Butt (1991) was used to measure the parental attitude towards their physically handicapped children. For children a four-point Family Support Scale developed by Naz (2001) was used to measure the perceived family support of the children separately devised questionnaires, ascertained information for different demographic variables such as age, gender, education and socio-economic status of parents. Responses were statistically analyzed by the means, standard deviations, t-tests, correlations and alpha reliability coefficient and ANOVA were also calculated to check the reliability of the instruments. Research finding showed the high reliability estimates of both scales. Results also indicated that family support was a crucial factor in the improvement of the perception of physically handicapped child. The scores of both the scales were inversely correlated with each other. These findings suggest that, the parents over guardedness and concern generally lowers perceived family support of such child. They perhaps want to gain more autonomy. The amount of care and over protectiveness may lead to low self-esteem and developed the learned helplessness in such children. The study tried to stress the need for further research in the field of physically handicapped children and their parents’ psychology in order to promote better relationships among them. The suggestion was also mentioned.