Outcome differences among families with children with and without a disability

Background: Family Quality of Life (FQOL) is an important outcome when determining services for children with disabilities.  The concept provides a holistic framework to measure the quality of family life.  Previous research indicated that families with children with disabilities often have more traditional family roles than typical households, with the mother often assuming the primary caregiver role.  Further, siblings of children with disabilities often provide supports to their sibling with a disability, including help around the home.  The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the relationships among three outcomes for families with children with a disability and families with children that are typical.

Methods and Results: Ninety-five families with children that attend day programming at a large, non-profit organization in the Southeast completed three instruments: FQOL Scale, Carolina Family Responsibilities Scale (to measure parental involvement), and Wisconsin Sibling Questionnaire (to measure sibling interactions).  Forty-nine guardians of children with a disability and 46 guardians of children without a disability (2-groups) completed hard-copy instruments.  Statistical analyses were conducted between family types (groups) to identify differences and associations among outcomes.  Significant differences on mean scores of the FQOL Scale and Carolina Family Responsibilities Scale were identified between groups (p<.05).  FQOL was predicted by the Carolina Family Responsibilities Scale (r=.233, p<.001).

Conclusions: Findings indicate that families with children with a disability experience lower levels of FQOL and parental (paternal) involvement with family responsibilities as compared to families with children that are typical.  FQOL may be predicted by paternal involvement with family responsibilities.