Psychological, sociocultural and economic coping strategies of mothers or female caregivers of children with a disability in Belu district, Indonesia

by Gregorius Abanit Asa, Nelsensius Klau Fauk, Paul Russell Ward, Karen Hawke, Rik Crutzen, Lillian Mwanri Caring for children with a disability can cause a range of psychological and socioeconomic challenges for parents and caregivers, such as anxiety, depression, inability to find affordable and appropriate childcare, loss of income and expenses related to disability specific treatment. As part of a study exploring the impacts of childhood disability on mothers or female caregivers and families, and the copy strategies they used, this paper describes strategies employed by mothers or female caregivers to cope with challenges associated with childhood disability within their family in Belu distr ict, Indonesia. A qualitative approach using one-on-one in-depth interviews was used to collect data from participants (n = 22) who were recruited using a combination of purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and imported to NVivo 12 for analysis. A qualitative framework analysis was used to guide data analysis. The conceptual framework of coping strategies guided the conceptualisation and discussion of the findings. The findings showed that active psychological coping strategies, including cognitive or acceptance strategies, knowledge of bot h health condition and socio-academic related development of children with a disability, and family relationship and support, were used by the participants to cope with psychological challenge...
Source: PLoS One - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research