title: Adaptation of families with mentally retarded children: a model of stress, coping, and family ecology.
abstract: Research concerned with families of mentally retarded children has often yielded inconsistent, and at times, contradictory findings. This inconsistency is partly due to methodological inadequacies and a narrow focus on unidimensional variables with unimodal measurements. In addition, no succinct model has been presented to explain family adaptation and the range of possible outcomes. In this paper a critical review focused on parents, siblings, parent-child interactions, and family systems was presented. A comprehensive conceptual model was proposed that accounts for (a) the range of possible familial adaptations, both positive and negative, involving the impact of perceived stress associated with the presence of a retarded child; and (b) the family's coping resources and ecological environments as interactive systems that serve to mediate the family's response to stress.
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D008393:Marriage; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012801:Sibling Relations; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology