1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« The main objective of this study is to examine the role of a number of factors on the sensitivity of mothers and fathers of 18-month old infants with or without a disability. » (p. 28)

Questions/Hypothèses :
We expect :
« 1) that father’s and mother’s ERA (early relational antecedents) will be predictive of their parental sensitivity
2) to find a negative association between parenting stress and parental sensitivity for both mothers and fathers
3) to find a negative relation between mothers’ and fathers’ scores on depression and their parental sensitivity
4) a negative association between mothers’ and fathers’ marital stress and parental sensitivity
5) with some degree of reserve, that mothers will show a greater sensitivity towards their child than fathers
6) lower levels of sensitivity among parents of disabled children compared to parents of non-disabled children
7) a positive association between socio-economic indicators and parental sensitivity
8) we do not expect to find any difference in parental sensitivity according to the gender of young children » (p. 28)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Parents : 116 mothers (aged 17-40 yrs) and 84 fathers (aged 20-52 yrs)
Children : 117 18-month old children (34 children were diagnosed with Down syndrome, 51 with a cleft lip and/or palate, and 32 were non-disabled children.)

Instruments :
- Parent/Caregiver Involvement Scale (P/CIS, Farran et al., 1986);
- Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI, Parker et al., 1979) translated in French for the present study;
- Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (Abidin, 1990) validated in French by Lacharité et al. (1992);
- Depression subscale of the IDESPQ14 (Préville et al., 1992), a French translated and validated form of Psychiatric Symptom Index (Ilfeld, 1976);
- Marital stress was measured using a four-item unvalidated scale.

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« This study examines the effect of early relational antecedents (ERA, i.e., the quality of parenting parents recalled receiving as children), parenting stress, marital stress, socio-economic factors and children’s characteristics (gender and disability condition) on the parental sensitivity of mothers and fathers.
The sample consisted of 116 mothers (aged 17-40 yrs) and 84 fathers (aged 20-52 yrs) of 117 18-month old children drawn from a larger longitudinal study on the adaptation of parents to a child with a disability. 34 children were diagnosed with Down syndrome (DS), 51 with a cleft lip and/or palate (CLP), and 32 were non-disabled children.
Multiple regression analyses reveal that mothers’ sensitivity is best predicted by her level of education and family income, whereas fathers’ sensitivity is best predicted by their ERA, marital stress, family income and the child’s disability condition. Mothers with more education and a greater family income displayed a greater sensitivity to their children, as did fathers who perceive less marital stress, those with a greater family income and those who perceived their parents as less controlling. Also, fathers of children with DS displayed less sensitivity for their children than fathers of children with CLP or fathers of non-disabled children. These results concord with many studies about the importance of socio-economic factors, ERA, marital stress, parent’s gender ans children’s factors in the understanding of parental sensitivity. » (p. 27)