Parental Experiences (parental + experience)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Parental experience of participation in physical therapy for children with physical disabilities

DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 1 2003
Lucres MC Jansen PhD
First page of article [source]


Parental perception and interpretation of infant emotions: psychological and physiological processes

INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2005
Gottfried Spangler
Abstract To study parental experience and perception of infant emotional expressions parents' responses to infant pictures depicting positive, neutral and negative emotions were assessed on the level of affective judgments (perceived and experienced valence and arousal), of mimic responses (facial muscle activity) and of the eyelid reflex (using the startle paradigm). In general, while parents were able to appropriately perceive infant emotions and were clearly affected by them, they exhibited a bias for positive interpretation. This was obvious from their subjective evaluations which, e.g. were more positive for experienced than for perceived valence, as well as from their mimic responses indicating positive responses in general. In addition, infant pictures including the negative ones lead to an inhibition of the startle reflex, indicating a positive evaluation of infant emotions on the sub-cortical level. These effects were most prominent when parents were faced with pictures of their own infants as compared to unfamiliar ones. The way parents process information about infant emotions may facilitate appropriate responsiveness to infants' needs. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Living with a child with a severe orofacial handicap: experiences from the perspectives of parents

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ORAL SCIENCES, Issue 1 2003
Ulrika Trulsson
Orofacial functions include competences/abilities such as eating, breathing, speech/language, mimicry, as well as oral health, and disturbances are common in children with rare disorders. To describe parental experiences of orofacial function and needs in children with rare disorders, in-depth interviews focusing on orofacial function were carried out with 14 parents. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed in open, axial (theoretical) and selective coding processes according to Grounded Theory. Two core categories emerged from data in the analysis: ,the vulnerable family' and ,support perceived from others'. The data indicated the importance of a balance between these two core categories: the strain caused by living in a family with a child with a severe disability/handicap, and the availability of perceived support from caregivers and significant others. This balance was necessary for the parents in developing self-reliance and in reconciling themselves to their life situations. Parents described orofacial dysfunction in terms of feeding and communication problems, needs for orthodontic treatment to reduce risk of trauma or improve chewing, and drooling. Oral health issues such as dental caries and gingivitis were not mentioned. Five aspects of good professional attitude were recognized: respect, involvement, continuity, knowledge, and availability. [source]


Sleeping with baby: an internet-based sampling of parental experiences, choices, perceptions, and interpretations in a western industrialized context

INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2007
J. J. McKenna
Abstract Mothers and infants sleeping within proximity to each other (co-sleeping) represents normal, healthy, and expectable human behaviour, especially if mothers breastfeed. Yet, western health officials generally recommend against particularly one form of co-sleeping known as bedsharing. This study explores these issues and especially highlights parental accounts of their sleep practices, interpretations, and reflections based on detailed narratives or ,ethnohistories.' The sample involves a self-selected sub-group of over 200 mostly middle-class mothers from Canada, the United States, Australia, and Great Britain. Mothers report how and why they adopted co-sleeping practices, how satisfied they are (or were) with their decisions, and what benefits they think they or their infants derived from their co-sleeping practices. Also included in the reports are a surprisingly high number of parents who think they may have saved their infant's life by bedsharing, data heretofore never reported in the literature. The formulation of medical policies, we suggest, ultimately must be informed by a full understanding of how parents actually think about and subsequently structure their infant's sleep, what their goals and expectations are, and by an awareness of the emotional factors motivating parents to choose certain sleeping arrangements over others. The results reveal that many factors coalesce, often in unique ways, under unique circumstances, family by family, to determine where babies sleep and why. We conclude that sleeping arrangements are not solely determined by medically based recommendations, but also by the method of feeding, the particular needs of a particular infant, and the needs of mothers and fathers to get more sleep. While baby sleep locations and sleep patterns change in the first year of life, nighttime sleeping arrangements almost always reflect the nature of family values and the quality of social relationships at any given time. We conclude that these factors, alongside widely known independent SIDS risk factors, must also be acknowledged and respected if we are ever to achieve an effective and inclusive public health approach to the question of creating safe sleep environments for infants and children. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The Disclosure Process and its Impact on South Asian Families with a Child with Severe Intellectual Disabilities

JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 3 2003
Chris Hatton
Background, Although several research studies have investigated parental experiences of the disclosure process in White families with a child with severe disabilities, little work has focused on the experiences of South Asian families. Materials and methods, This study aimed to provide a rich picture of the disclosure experiences of South Asian parents of a child with severe intellectual disabilities, using semi-structured qualitative interviews with 26 parents over two time points, and structured quantitative interviews with 136 parents. Results, Parents reported variable experiences of the disclosure process, with many parents experiencing disclosure in the wrong language for them and most parents reporting little post-disclosure support. Parents identified good practice in disclosure as prompt disclosure in the appropriate language, with the partner present (where possible), with emotional support as part of the process, with clear and practical information, and linked to post-disclosure support from a keyworker. Conclusions, Good practice in disclosure was also associated with parental understanding of their child, and parents being more likely to mobilize informal and formal supports. The implications of these findings are discussed. [source]


Early parenthood in a community context: neighborhood conditions, race,ethnicity, and parenting stress,

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2010
Lydia M. Franco
Research has highlighted the role of intrapersonal and family characteristics on stress, but less attention has been paid to the potential influence of the community context and racial-ethnic differences in early parental experiences. Using an ecological model, this study examines the impact of neighborhood-level social disorder and social cohesion on parenting stress and whether this is universal across mothers of different race,ethnicities in a sample of mothers of young children in large U.S. cities. Study findings show that neighborhood context is significantly associated with parenting stress and minority parents experience less stress than White parents in higher-disordered neighborhoods. Findings highlight the need to improve community conditions, social support, and resources to reduce parenting stress. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]