COPING STRATEGIES OF PARENTS WITH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY CHALLENGED CHILDREN IN ENUGU URBAN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA

📄 Project Abstract

The contemporary world is filled with a never ending array of challenges and numerous factors are responsible for that, (Bennibor 2007). One of such challenges is the burden of caring for a physically or mentally challenged child. The birth of a normal child can have a significant effect on the family dynamics. For this reason, parents and other children in the family must undergo a variety of changes to adapt to the pressure of a new member (Hussain and Juyal 2007). More profoundly, the birth of a physically or mentally challenged child to a family constitutes a serious burden that poses obvious challenges to parents. These challenges could include the time required for extra care, increased financial demand, stigmatization, psychological and social burden among others. Dykens (2000) described physical challenge or disability as lack of ability relative to a personal or group standard or norm which may involve physical impairment such as sensory impairment limiting sensory function, o...