[The importance of family coherence for mentally handicapped children]

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Family Studies
• Developmental Disabilities

Background:

• Handicapped children often exhibit perseverance, attention, and behavioral regulation challenges.
• These challenges necessitate frequent instruction repetition and can strain family dynamics.
• Good family coherence may mitigate these symptoms and improve overall family functioning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of family coherence on the well-being of handicapped children.
• To compare family functioning between families with handicapped children and healthy control groups.

Main Methods:

• Evaluated 15 families of handicapped children and a matched healthy control group.
• Utilized the "Familienklima-Testsystem" and "Erziehungspraktiken" questionnaires.
• Employed the Mann-Whitney-U-Test for group comparisons.

Main Results:

• Families with good coherence demonstrated significantly improved family features, particularly concerning handicapped children.
• A strong positive correlation was observed between family coherence and beneficial family characteristics.
• Handicapped children in cohesive families experienced reduced symptomatology.

Conclusions:

• Enhanced family coherence appears to positively influence family dynamics and reduce behavioral symptoms in handicapped children.
• Strong family functioning acts as a protective factor for children with developmental challenges.
• Interventions promoting family cohesion may be beneficial for supporting handicapped children.