The Role of Parent's Parenting Style on Prediction of Self-determination of Siblings of Children with Developmental disability

Birth of a child with developmental disability can impose challenges on every family member. It also affects interaction of parents with each other and parent child interaction. Parenting styles are particular methods that parents use in nurturing their children. Parents of children with developmental disability face extreme difficulties in dealing with challenging behaviors, teaching their child to communicate, teaching basic life skills, guarding their child from danger, and preparing their child for adult life. There are high-risk factors (such as the ambiguity of diagnosis; the severity and duration of the child’s disorder; a very low I.Q.; lack of congruity with the community norms, bizarre forms of communication and behavior; and enduring disruptive or disorganized behaviors), which might inflict such parents with acute or chronic stress and trauma. They, in turn, may lead to dysfunctional parenting; as such parents spend more time to meet the needs of child with developmental disability and less time to spend with other children. Also, siblings of the child with developmental disability are expected to help the child with a disability needs. The aim of present study was to predict self-determination of siblings of children with developmental disability based on parenting style of their parents.
This is a descriptive correlational study. The population of this research was all the family members of children with developmental disability in Shiraz- Iran in school year 2015-2016. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 181 participants, of whom 91 participants were the siblings of children with developmental disability. The research instruments were Parenting Styles Questionnaire developed by Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart's and Self-Determination Scale developed by Gomez-Vela, Verdugo, Gil, Corbella, and Wehmeyers. Simultaneous multiple regression procedures were used to analyze the data.
The results showed that authoritative parenting style was a statistically significant predictor of one subscale of self-determination, namely, autonomy in positive direction (P=0.005). Yet, it failed to predict psychological empowerment and self-realization subscales. Moreover, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were not significant predictors of any subscales of self-determination, namely, autonomy, psychological empowerment, and self-realization.
It can be concluded that family training workshops for enhancing knowledge and awareness of parents about parenting styles is necessary. Since the authoritative parenting style had a significant positive relationship with the siblings’ ability of self-determination, authoritative parenting style training for parents of children with developmental disabilities is essential.