Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31299/hrri.60.2.1
Parental causal attributions for their child's developmental language disorder and the relationship between causal attributions and parental mental health
Matea Kramarić
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law, Social Work Study Centre, Heinzelova 70a, Zagreb, Croatia
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Previous studies have found that causal attributions, i.e., inferences people make about causes of an outcome (Hewstone & Fincham, 2001), are related to parents’ adjustment to their children’s illness or developmental disorders, but these results are inconsistent. The present study had two aims: 1) to describe the causes that parents attribute to their child’s developmental language disorder (DLD) and how they rate these causes on the dimensions of locus, personal controllability, and stability, and 2) to examine the relationship between causal attributions for the child’s DLD and parents’ mental health, as well as to determine whether
these relationships differ as a function of time since diagnosis. Participants included 319 biological parents (94.2% mothers, mean age M = 39.71 years, SD = 5.09) whose children had
been diagnosed with DLD as their primary diagnosis. They completed an online questionnaire consisting of demographic questions, the Revised Causal Dimensions Scale (CDS-II; McAuley et al., 1992), and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). The results showed that the parents mostly attributed their child’s DLD to genetic factors, as well as various prenatal and perinatal risk factors. In all categories, participants rated the locus of the cause as external, on average. Screen exposure, as well as inadequate language input and parental reactions were rated as the most personally controllable causes, while genetic factors were considered as the most stable causes. Using structural equation modelling, significant effects of perceived locus and personal controllability of the cause on parents’ negative emotional states were observed only at lower levels of time since the child’s diagnosis: locus had a negative effect and personal controllability had a positive effect on parental emotional states. A positive effect was found for the perceived stability of the cause of the child’s disorder, which was also significant at higher levels of time since the child’s diagnosis. The theoretical and practical implications of the results were discussed.
Keywords
causal attributions for the child’s developmental disorder; parental mental health; developmental language disorder; parents; time since diagnosis
Hrčak ID:
323934
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2024.
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