Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T09:13:25.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impact of an Abnormal Child upon the Parents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Ann Gath
Ann Gath*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford; now Consultant Child Psychiatrist, Borocourt Hospital, Wyfold, Reading, Berks RG4 9JD
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Thirty families with a newborn mongol baby were matched with thirty families with a normal baby. Both groups were followed for eighteen months to two years and interviewed six times. Few differences could be found in the mental or physical health of the two groups of parents, but marital breakdown or severe marital disharmony was found in nine of the mongol families and in none of the controls.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 130 , Issue 4 , April 1977 , pp. 405 - 410
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1977 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, G. W., Bhrolchain, M. & Harris, T. O. (1975) Social class and psychiatric disturbance among women in an urban population. Sociology, 9, 223–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, L. (1975) The Family Life of Sick Children: London: Routlege and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Caldwell, B. H. & Guze, S. B. (1960) A study of the adjustment of parents and siblings of institutionalized and non-institutionalized retarded children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 64, 845–61.Google Scholar
Costello, A. (1974) Unpublished seminar, given to Professor J. S. Bruner's team, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Drotar, D., Baskiewicz, A., Irvin, N., Kennell, J. & Klaus, M. (1975). The adaptation of parents to the birth of an infant with a congenital malformation: a hypothetical model. Pediatrics 56, 710–17.Google Scholar
Farber, B. (1959) The effects of a severely mentally retarded child on family integration. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 24, No. 2.Google Scholar
Farber, G. & Jenne, W. C. (1963) Family organization and parent-child communication: parents and siblings of a retarded child. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 28, No. 7.Google Scholar
Fowle, C. M. (1969) The effect of the severely retarded child on his family. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 73, 468–73.Google Scholar
Gath, A. (1973) The school-age siblings of mongol children British Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 161–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gath, A. (1974) Sibling reactions to mental handicap: a comparison of the brothers and sisters of mongol children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 15, 187–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hewett, S. (1970) The Family and the Handicapped Child. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Holt, K. S. (1957) The impact of mentally retarded children on their families. M.D. Thesis, University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Kellmer Pringle, M. L. & Fiddes, D. O. (1970) The Challenge of Thalidomide. London: Longman National Children's Bureau.Google Scholar
Martin, P. (1975) Marital breakdown in families of patients with spina bifida cystica. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 17, 557–64.Google Scholar
Penrose, L. S. (1969) The Biology of Mental Defect. Revised edition. Sidgewick and Jackson.Google Scholar
Quinton, D., Rutter, M. & Rowlands, O. An evaluation of an interview assessment of marriage. In preparation.Google Scholar
Roskies, E. (1972) Abnormality and Normality: the Mothering of Thalidomide Children. New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. & Brown, G. (1966) The reliability and validity of measures of family life and relationships in families containing a psychiatric patient. Social Psychiatry, 1, 38.Google Scholar
Rutter, M., Tizard, J. & Whitmore, K. (1970) Health, Education and Behaviour. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Schonell, F. J. & Watts, B. H. (1957) A first survey on the effects of a subnormal child on the family unit. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 61, 210–19.Google Scholar
Solnit, A. J. & Stark, M. H. (1961) Mourning and the birth of a defective child. Psychoanalytical Study of the Child, 16, 523–7.Google Scholar
Tew, B. J., Payne, E. H. & Lawrence, K. M. (1974) Must a family with a handicapped child be a handicapped family? Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 16, Supplement 32, 95–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolfensberger, W. (1967) Counselling parents of the retarded. In Baumeister, , Ed. Mental Retardation: Appraisal, Education and Rehabilitation. University of London Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.