Eighty-five British mothers of children with autism who were acting as therapists for their child's program completed a questionnaire. Results indicated that, although program variables were unrelated to maternal therapeutic self-efficacy, support received from the program, the severity of the child's autism, and maternal stress were significant…

Parents of 49 children with developmental disabilities ranging from mild to severe completed the Reasons for Living Inventory. No significant differences were found between men and women or between individuals in one-parent versus two-parent households. Results suggested that the experience of having a disabled child may help to strengthen…

Maternal wait time after open- and closed-ended questions with eight Down syndrome (DS) and eight language-age (LA) matched peers was investigated. Mothers provided a longer mean wait time for LA children (2.5 seconds) than for DS children (1.8 seconds). These wait times matched well with children's usual response times. No differences for…

Parents of 601 children and adolescents with mental retardation rated their children on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community (ABC). Factor analysis revealed a factor structure similar to the original ABC but without the inappropriate speech factor. Analysis of subject variables revealed main effects for gender, age, and classroom assignment…

In this preliminary study, three parents who requested outpatient services for treatment of developmentally disabled children's problem behavior were taught to implement multiple treatment components. Therapists employed the most cost-efficient method first (i.e., written and verbal instructions) to teach prescribed behavior management strategies.…

This study compared stress and coping in fathers (n=40) of adolescents with mental retardation and fathers (n=31) of adolescents without mental retardation. Findings showed use of different coping strategies, but no significant differences in levels of stress between the groups and no influence of the adolescent's gender on fathers' stress levels.…

This study compared fears and social anxiety in children with (n=57)and without (n=25) developmental disabilities, using self-ratings and parent ratings. Children without disabilities showed significantly higher consistency over time than children with disabilities. Correlations between parent and child ratings were fair to good. (DB)

Analysis of teacher and parent ratings of 369 children with developmental disabilities on the Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form provided normative data (means, T scores, and percentiles). Age influenced three of eight subscales on the parent ratings and one subscale on the teacher ratings. Gender did not influence subscale scores. (Author/DB)

This study compared perceptions of parents of 19 children with Down's syndrome (DS) who had undergone plastic facial surgery with perceptions of parents of DS children who had not received surgery. The comparison found little evidence of positive impact of the surgery on parents' perceptions of their children's physical, personal, and social…

This study, involving 40 young siblings of either handicapped or nonhandicapped children, found that siblings of handicapped children engaged in more parallel and social play and were more nurturing with their siblings than were control children. Mothers were more likely to deliver commands, directives, and reprimands to siblings of handicapped…

This corrected article on parent-managed interventions with children with autism reports on analysis of data on 66 children. Findings generally indicated that, after 31.6 months of intervention, IQ scores had not changed but adaptive behavior scores had increased significantly (n=21). However, overall interventions did not reproduce results from…

The Child Behavior Rating Form (CBRF) was adapted for use with children having mental retardation and was named the Nisonger CBRF. Independent factor analyses of parent and teacher ratings for 369 children produced 2 Social Competence subscales and 6 Problem Behavior subscales. Internal consistency was generally high and parent-teacher agreement…

The Handicap-Related Problems for Parents Inventory (HPPI) was developed for the measurement of handicap-related problems experienced by mothers of children with chronic physical conditions. An initial evaluation of its psychometric properties was completed with 119 mothers of children with physical or sensory impairments. The HPPI demonstrated…