- Title
- Resilience in families living with child diagnosed with cerebral palsy
- Creator
- Small, Renée Frances
- Subject
- Resilience (Personality trait)
- Subject
- Cerebral palsy
- Subject
- Adjustment (Psychology)
- Subject
- Adaptability (Psychology)
- Date Issued
- 2010
- Date
- 2010
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MA
- Identifier
- vital:9876
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1362
- Identifier
- Resilience (Personality trait)
- Identifier
- Cerebral palsy
- Identifier
- Adjustment (Psychology)
- Identifier
- Adaptability (Psychology)
- Description
- Cerebral Palsy is a complex, non-progressive condition that manifests in various forms of motor impairments. This life-long condition holds numerous challenges for the entire family throughout the family life-cycle. While the challenges that these families have to face are many, families seem to have the ability to "bounce back" and to be resilient. Research on the construct of resilience and more specifically family resilience has increased in recent times. South African family resilience research is relatively limited. This study aimed to identify, explore and describe the resiliency factors that facilitate adjustment and adaptation in families that include a child living with Cerebral Palsy. The Resiliency Model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation was used to conceptualise the level of family adaptation. The study was triangular in nature, with an exploratory, descriptive approach. Non-probability purposive and snowball sampling techniques were employed. The sample consisted of 30 female caregivers. Biographical questionnaires with two open-ended questions, in conjunction with seven structured questionnaires were used to gather the data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the biographical information. Correlation and regression analysis was used to analyse the quantitative data, while content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The results of the quantitative component of the study indicated five significant positive correlations with the FACI8. These variables were family hardiness (measured by the FHI), family time together and routines (measured by the FTRI), social support (measured by the SSI), relative and friends support (measure by the RFS), and spiritual support (measured by the F-COPES). The results of the qualitative analysis revealed that social support, the caregivers' acceptance of the condition, and spirituality and religion were the most important strength factors that contributed to the families' adjustment and adaptation. Although the sample was small and the study has limitations, it could be used as a stepping-stone for future research on resilience in families living with a child with a physical disability and will contribute to the broader context of family resilience research in South Africa.
- Format
- xiv, 175 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Health Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
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