Family Functioning, Parenting, and Couple Satisfaction in Families of Children with a Disability

This study investigated the concept of family resilience in relation to parenting styles comparing four factors that enable parents to cope with a special-needs child: family functioning, couple satisfaction, parental stress and parenting style. Four aspects (Focus of Attention, Experiential Modality, Regulation and Energy) of parent-child interactions were analyzed. The aim of research was to explore differences between parents of a child with an intellectual disability and those with a nondisabled child. The participants were 32 couples with disabled children and 32 couples with nondisabled children. The results showed that parenting stress influences parenting style differently in the two types of families. Parenting style is differently influenced by family functioning and couple satisfaction. Many interesting differences between parents were found.