Positive Aspects to Parenting - Research Paper Sample

Introduction

Raising a child with a disability is one area filled with conspiracy and paradox on whether parents identify positive aspects while parenting children with intellectual disabilities. However, despite parents' acknowledgment of experiencing stressing moments when raising children with intellectual disabilities, parents also report the child having associated positive changes for the family and themselves. Currently, the perception of vivaciousness is unclear, and the study tries to note various aspect parent considers to be positive. The key elements include increased faith and spirituality, pleasure in child accomplishment, greater life appreciation, changing priorities, and increased confidence and personal strength. Other parents suggest that raising a child with intellectual disability results in having a more meaningful relationship. By examining the various identified aspects, however, reveals that most elements consist of coping strategies. By adopting a meaning-focusing approach, parents can readily adopt a stressful environment, hence comfortably raising their child.

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Intellectual Disabilities

Many children suffering from intellectual disabilities stay with their guardians or parents at home. The majority of these parents end up supporting their children for the rest of their life. Examples of these supports include emotional care, medication care, financial care, and direct care. Also, these parents will have to manage their time and resources daily because children with intellectual disabilities experience chronic conditions. Therefore they may need complex medical health care. Due to the lifelong support required to have a child suffering from intellectual disabilities, parenting is taken as a stress model. Parenthood is framed with a medical model whereby it depicts disabilities as multiple occurring functional deficits. Both of these models focus on children's stress and report the burden the child disabilities put on their families. The models also study psychological anxiety, depression, and health degradation on the parents when giving caring roles to children.

The initial perception of "positive aspects" among the parents observed across literacy analysis was previously attributed to maladaptive reality or denial distortion. However, based on the findings, there is no direct relationship between positive and negative appraisal of parental impact on raising children with intellectual disabilities.

Positive Aspects

The issue of positive perception by parents is a challenging aspect to define since the disability field does not have a supporting theoretical model on how “positivity” idea can be addressed as well as the contributing element constructing positive perception is complex. The is no conception clarity, and it is not clearly defined, leading to different conceptualization across different studies. However, defining for positive aspects has only been provided by a few studies as any indication from an individual and family member has benefited from having a child with a disability. Other studies suggest that Positive perception can be defined as a conclusion or belief that adverse circumstances and events have evoked or revealed positive results in individuals’ lives.

Consequently, different researches use the definitions provided for positive aspects of interchangeably. However, most scholars frequently use positive impacts. Other researchers describe positive perception as benefiting findings or benefits or gaining positive contributions. Different standard definitions include transformation, having a positive contribution, positive experiences, or rewards (Dyches, 2012). Therefore, parents' perception that there is an underlying positivity towards raising a child with disability can be attributed to change the perception of having undergone an actual change. Due to the absence of clarity in the conceptual model, there are a quantitative mix instruments and the related measures being utilized, therefore providing results that are completely difficult to comprehend.

Stressing Factors

According to meta-analytic findings of benefit finding, as well as growth across a range of stressing factors show that the related benefits in some measurements after an event occurrence reflects growth in individual or actual change implication. However, the measurement of benefit right after an event shows the cognitive strategy used in reducing stress. However, the concept is conceded to be challenging to highlight since researchers have diversified research topics.

According to a parallel study of caregivers or nursing personnel assisting older individuals suffering from dementia disorder who have recently reported having positive aspects have been reported to have self-reported health, they also show high caregiving competence and reduced depressive symptoms. Related studies on caregivers supporting older individuals have shown to express concerns on careers who do not acknowledge any positive aspect throughout their caring duty. Therefore, it can be concluded that all caregivers who cannot provide any positive aspects have a higher risk of having poor health outcomes and depression. Scholars suggest that lacking gratification for older people's caregivers act as a risk abuse indicator for older people.

Parents with children experiencing intellectual disability have an extended period providing care to their children. According to a cross-sectional study in England on parent care on children with disabilities, it is estimated that, 75% of parents take care of children with disabilities for over 20 years instead of 18.1% on all careers (Beighton & Wills, 2017). Difference in caregiving duration is directly related to impacting personal well-being. Therefore, it is essential to understand different aspects parents perceive to be positive nad whether the positive being described is amenable according to therapeutically interventions that can contribute towards positivity.

Understanding and interpreting each individual's perception as to whether lively will play a central role resource for parents with recently diagnosed children and parents who are struggling to identify positive aspects. Consequently, while attempting to conclude “positive perception” nature, Taunt and Hastings attempt to understand the implication of parents who asked to describe the family's impact on having a child with a disability (Dyches, 2012). The results from the test wa 14 unique positive aspects. Consistent themes were identified across the studies regardless of differences in positive experiences and perception conceptualization ways and methodologies and differences in sizes.

However, it has been posited that there is no apparent relationship between parents attributing the identification of child parenting's positive aspects depending on sex but rather adaptive coping mechanisms. Parents engage in reframing positivity, a significant component of meaning-focused coping. Despite the difference in ideologies, some people do not support the assumption that the identified benefits are not evidence for cognitive coping mechanisms. The study argues that if there is any benefit stated by a parent raising a child with an intellectual disability, it should be taken at the word without necessarily considering relating it to a cognitive coping mechanism.

Meaning Focused Coping

Coping refers to a response copying aimed to help suppress the emotional, psychological, and physical burden associated with the life invents that is very stressful. Also, copying helps handle transactional models of tress, highlighting the emotional aspects and competitiveness of a person experiencing stress, resulting in sorting out the problem through a coping process (Blacher, 2007). However, copying tends to be a person's central perspective. The stress models that contribute to the operation of copying contain states which reflect positive psychology that lead a person into getting a focused, meaningful coping strategies. Through it, an individual will require to conduct an extensive research in order to get even more approving content to understand their ongoing situations and their implications. Examples of such models have been used since the early days and also find their ways in the current modern studies of families with children suffering from intellectual disabilities.

‘Meaning’ is defined as coherent out of one’s existence, order, or making sense. Therefore, meaning focus can, therefore, be considered to assume that stress is experienced when there is a perception of discrepancies between a given situation appraised meaning (Dyches, 2012). Meaning focus can be attributed to the degree of implication, controllability, harm, or threat and global purpose as a critical assumption on desires, beliefs, goals, values, and life. Most parents assume that their child will assume normal development and health; hence intellectual disability violates personal beliefs. Personal beliefs are likely to affect a given parent psychology as they try to resolve the incongruence between appraised and global meaning. Therefore, parents will be forced to reevaluate their future hope, priorities, and plans, life goals, and the resulting incongruence may be changed through searching for better good situation understanding achieving a reduced mismatch between global meanings and situational meaning.

Methods

The research used a quantitative study during the first phases. The study used the sequential mixed methods underpinned from the pragmatism philosophy. Pragmatism was preferred due to one of its central concepts that utillizes are knowing the current situation and implementing actions to reshape to a new reality.

The study attained ethical approval and therefore went ahead to conduct semi-structured face-to-face interviews, which were considered more efficeint because it would be easy for carers to expresse their experience through facial reactions and respond to some of the guided questions asked by the interviewer (Dyches, 2012). The interview schedule contained a section that explored the attributes and characteristics of each parent and their whole social or psychological environment. In each interview, an audio record was obtained, and latter, a filed note which contained the writing of the interviewer reflection was attached.

Conclusion

In the research, there were fourteen mothers, five fathers, and from them, there were two couples recruited from the partnership boards of the local MENCAP organization. These parents were recruited because they have been supporting children who were diagnosed with intellectual disability. Other specifications that the parents required to satisfy to be selected: they spoke and understood English, should be older than 18yrs, have a child aged above five years, and have been living with their child in their same house (Wills & Beighton, 2019). There were ten male children and 9 female children diagnosed with different physical disabilities from the selected parents who participated.