ERIC Number: EJ755497
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005
Pages: 15
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0256-2928
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
A Comparative Study of Mothers' Beliefs and Childrearing Behaviour: The Effect of the Child's Disability and the Mother's Educational Level
Roskam, Isabelle
European Journal of Psychology of Education, v20 n2 p139-153 2005
The article presents the results of a data analysis intended to examine the relationship between children's personality, maternal beliefs and childrearing behaviour and various disabilities on the one hand (mildly, moderate or severe mental handicap, sensorial handicap, developmental disabilities) and mothers' educational level on the other. Data were taken from 102 mothers of disabled children between the ages of three and six. The children came from the Walloon Region of Belgium and were regularly counselled by an early intervention team (Services d'Aide Precoce - SAP). Variance analyses were performed on questionnaire data from the total sample (n=102). The questionnaires were based on the Five Factor Model of personality rating (Roskam, de Maere-Gaudissart, & Vandenplas-Holper, 2000), and on Sameroff's levels of parental development for the rating of maternal beliefs. Factorial correspondence analyses were also performed on maternal self-reported childrearing behaviour as described in 50 interviews with mothers, analysed with a coding grid. The results confirm that the child's disability contribute to changing maternal beliefs about personality and development as well as it may be considered as a main source of a change in the maternal directiveness. The results also confirm that the complexity of the mothers' explanatory models about child's development vary according to their educational level. Furthermore, while earlier studies were comparisons with a broad ranging sample, the present one explore comparisons between several disabilities. Contrary to most of the previous studies, it doesn't focus only on directiveness but also on other subcategories of the mothers' childrearing behaviour. Finally, several results here presented need future research. They are in favour of the relation between mother's educational level and childrearing behaviour while previous ones were much debated. They have also shown that general subcategories were not sufficient to describe mothers' childrearing behaviour. More complex dimensions have been extracted from the analyses. (Contains 6 tables and 1 note.)
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Comparative Analysis, Early Intervention, Personality, Data Analysis, Personality Assessment, Disabilities, Mother Attitudes, Educational Attainment, Questionnaires, Factor Analysis, Beliefs, Interviews, Coding, Child Rearing, Child Development, Behavior Patterns, Young Children
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Belgium
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A