The Family Environments of Children with Disabilities: Diverse But Not So Different

Abstract

This investigation studied the family environments and social support of a national sample of families of young children with handicaps currently enrolled in early intervention programs. The study was designed to describe the status of these families with regard to these issues; to determine whether the functioning of these families was related to the nature of the child's disability; and to determine how family functioning related to mothers' needs for early intervention services. The general pattern of Family Environment Scale (FES) (Moos, 1974) scores was comparable to that reported for an FES normative sample. Although the level of children's disability when controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) had virtually no association with FES scores, families identified as “distressed” were more likely to be of lower SES and have children with more severe disabilities. Parents of children with disabilities had high levels of needs for a variety of services from their children's early intervention program. These needs were not related to either their FES scores or to the severity of their children's disability, but were related to their satisfaction and need for support.