The purpose of the proposed study is to determine how much of an influence being afflicted with a physical disability during childhood has on the quality of life and ability to be resilient in adulthood. Specifically, this study will focus mainly on adults who have been physically disabled since early childhood (before age five). There will be an assessment of a total of four hundred permanent United States residents. Two hundred will be in the experimental group.
The other half will be assigned to the control group made up of adults who have never been inflicted with a physical disability and will be aged 18 though 52. The experimental group will also consist of adults aged 18 though 52 who have been diagnosed with a chronic physical disability since childhood. During the testing stage, each participant in each group will be given several tests in order to determine what factors most heavily influence those to become more resilient and how heavily having a hardship such as a physical disability weighs in the development of resilience.
A definition of these terms is provided next for the purposes of understanding them. Paraphrased from the American Heritage Dictionary, a disability is a physical or mental disadvantage, which significantly impedes quality of life and normal daily activity. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (The Americans With Disabilities Act (Ada): Overview, Regulations and Interpretations-- by Nancy Lee Jones) more specifically a disability as one or more of three characteristics.
[...] The role of reciprocity in social support. In B.R. Sarason, I.G. Sarason, and G.R. Pierce. (Eds.) Social Support: An Interactional View (pg. 173-179). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Armstrong, M. I. & Birnie-Lefcovitch, S. (2005). Pathways between social support, family well being, quality of parenting, and child resilience: what we know. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 14, 269-281. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York : Freeman. Brooks, R. & Goldstein, S. (2001). Raising resilient children. [...]
[...] Authentic Happiness. New York : Free Press. Werner, E.E. (2001). Journeys from childhood to mid-life: risk, resiliency, and recovery. Ithaca : Cornell University press. Werner, E.E. (1995). Resilience in development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 4, 81-84. Werner, E.E. & Smith, R. S. (1992). Overcoming the odds: High risk children from birth to adulthood. Ithaca : Cornell University press. Zebrack, B. & Chesler, M. (2002). Quality of life in childhood cancer survivors. Psycho-Oncology, 11(2), 132-141. 11. CONSORTICUM/CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENTS None 12. [...]
[...] The other questionnaires will be administered to both groups. These questionnaires are the TSIS, Raven's, MMPI-IV and RSA. E. Results: The results will give some indication of how the participant's disability has affected their emotional health and daily life. After these results are assessed, both groups will return to the lab one final time to complete the Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA). The reason for giving the intelligence, social intelligence, and personality tests is to ascertain that difference in both groups on the RSA aren't due to other factors besides having or not having a disability. [...]
[...] In describing the process model of stress and coping, they assert that blame is not assigned to each person because each can only manage stress the best they can. • • How social support functions depends on the support systems available to the person facing the stressful situation as well as the nature of the present stressor. This is referred to as the process model of stress and coping. The article describes the importance of what they term stress mediators, which are resources from which people can draw coping skills from. [...]
[...] In addition, most children are probably unaware of the fact that such professional help is even available. They must depend on adults for this direction and accessibility to the appropriate coping resources. When parents or other adults fail to meet the emotional and psychological needs of children that they are unable to meet themselves, they are forced to use their energy resources to cope. Their energy is one of the few things they have control over. Therefore, energy is important in helping children build resilience, leading to positive outcomes and healthy adaptation. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
