Empowerment process for families rearing children with developmental disorders in Japan

The understanding of developmental disorders and the support that is offered to families rearing a child with developmental disorders always have been limited in Japan. To clarify the empowerment process for families rearing a child with developmental disorders, we interviewed 20 mothers of children who lived in the wider Tokyo area, Japan. To analyze the data, we adopted the modified grounded theory approach. The results identified three stages in the empowerment process: confusion over caring for the child, confrontation with the child with the disorder, and expectations of a valuable life for the child. The empowerment process showed step-by-step progress: families that were originally ill-equipped to deal with their child's disorders were able to deal with them in collaboration with professionals through approaching the local administration and were able to shift their stance on child-rearing along with their child's growth. To promote the family empowerment process, cross-jurisdictional and cross-occupational collaboration among local care teams is needed. The members of the teams should understand the experiences and feelings of the families that are rearing children with developmental disorders in the context of the family's empowerment process.