Resumen

VILLAVICENCIO AGUILAR, Carmita  y  LOPEZ LARROSA, Silvia. Presence of intellectual disability in the family, mother's coping. Fides Et Ratio [online]. 2017, vol.14, n.14, pp. 99-112. ISSN 2071-081X.

Abstract Having a child with disabilities has an impact in the family. From a systemic perspective, the way the family answers to this impact will also influence the child's disability. This study analyzes 111 Ecuatorian mothers' perceived coping whose children had an intellectual disability, some of whom had also other impairments. The children's ages ranged from 3 months to 5 years and 8 months. We evaluated family variables, social support and individual coping strategies. For family variables, we used the Spanish version of the Family Satisfaction Scale and FACES II-20 to measure family cohesion and adaptability (Equipo EIF, 2011). We also developed subscales to measure parental agreement about money and about relationships inside and outside the family. In order to measure family support and extra-family support, we usedtwo subscales from the Cuestionario de percepción social (Molina, Nunes, y Vallejo, 2012). Individual coping strategies were measured using the Spanish version of Moss' Coping Scale (1993). Analyses showed that family variables (agreements and cohesion) were more relevant to explain mothers' perceived coping than individual or extra-family variables. These data stress the importance of taking into account family variables when planning interventions for children's intellectual disabilities.

Palabras llave : Family; intellectual disability; agreements; support; coping.