Parent-Child Relationships in Children with Speech-Language Disabilities
The purpose of this study was to understand how a child’s speech-language disability potentially impacts the quality of their parent-child relationship. The theoretical framework used for this study is based on the ABCX Model of Family Stress which suggests that factors that increase parent stress are likely to have a negative impact on parent-child relationships. Parent-child dyads were selected from the Western Reserve Reading Project (WRRP) to form two groups: a) 13 dyads in which the children had a speech-language disability and b) 13 dyads in which the children had typical speech-language skills. Quality of parent-child relationship was compared between these two groups using items from the Parent Feeling Questionnaire (Deater- Deckard, 1996) which measured how parents feel about their relationships with their children. Mean differences were statistically evaluated between both groups and between boys and girls with an independent samples t-test. Correlation matrixes were derived to evaluate the influence of parental education level. Results suggested no differences between groups and no influence of parent education level, but suggest that boys elicit more negativity from their mothers as compared to girls.