Browsing by Subject "Parents with Disabilities"
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Item Cultural Beliefs Regarding People with Disabilities in Namibia: Implications for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities(International Journal of Special Education, 2010) Haihambo, Cynthy; Lightfoot, ElizabethNamibia is a southern African country with national level policies promoting community inclusion and inclusive education. Despite these policies, people with disabilities are often excluded from schools and community life. This study explores the nuanced cultural beliefs about the causes of disability in Namibia, and the impacts of such beliefs on the implementation of disability policy. Eight themes emerged from this study regarding specific myths about the causes of disability and appropriate community responses to people with disabilities. This study finds that many Namibians believe in supernatural causes of disability, such as witchcraft, and/or in the role of improper relationships of family members as causes of disability; and that community responses to Namibians with disabilities are often negative. However, many people, particularly parents with disabilities, often have strong positive views of disability as well, reflecting the complex and changing nature of cultural beliefs. This study suggests that the implementation of disability inclusion policies is more likely to be successful if it builds upon positive aspects of cultural beliefs about disability.Item Disentangling over-representation of parents with disabilities in the child welfare system: Exploring child maltreatment risk factors of parents with disabilities(Children and Youth Services Review, 2014-12) Lightfoot, Elizabeth; Slayter, ElspethThe study explores the risk factors for child maltreatment and self-reported child maltreatment among a population-based sample of parents with disabilities. Drawing on a nationally-representative, population-based data file that oversampled people of color, income-adjusted odds ratio tests were conducted to establish population differences among parents with and without limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs). Results suggest that parents with disabilities were more likely to report many of the risk factors associated with child maltreatment than parents without disabilities, including witnessing interpersonal violence as a child; experiencing violence, neglect or a foster care stay as a child; mood or substance use disorders; and engaging in or receiving interpersonal violence as an adult. Before controlling for income, parents with disabilities had only a negligibly higher rate of engaging in violence against their children. After controlling for income, parents with disabilities were 2.5 times more likely to engage in violence against their children. Parents with disabilities who did engage in violence against their children had greater amounts of some of the child maltreatment risk factors in comparison to parents with disabilities who did not engage in violence, particularly their own childhood experiences of maltreatment, witnessing of interpersonal violence as a child, childhood stays in foster care, and experiences with interpersonal violence as an adult. Findings add to the understanding of the risk factors for child maltreatment that are related to the collateral effects of having a disability, and through the use of income-adjusted data, help disentangle why parents with disabilities are over-represented in the child welfare system. The findings highlight the need for the child welfare system to increase its disability competence in working with both children and parents with disabilities.