The connection between the attachment dimensions and the grief process among parents with a special needs child

Namen magistrskega dela je bil proučiti povezanost med navezanostjo in procesom žalovanja med starši, ki imajo otroka s posebnimi potrebami. Družinska dinamika se ob prihodu otroka s posebnimi potrebami v družino spremeni, proces žalovanja pa družini omogoči, da ponovno vzpostavi prostor, ki omogoča kvaliteto življenja. V raziskavi je sodelovalo 262 staršev otrok s posebnimi potrebami, od tega je bilo zajetih 63,6 % staršev dečkov in 36,4 % staršev deklic s posebnimi potrebami. Način žalovanja staršev smo merili s prilagoditvijo Vprašalnika žalovanja skrbnikov (Meuser in Marwith 2001), odzive pri žalovanju z Lestvico odnosa odraslih do žalovanja (Machin 2001), dimenzije navezanosti pa s Predelano lestvico navezanosti za odrasle (Collins 1996). Ugotovili smo, da se starši deklic in dečkov s posebnimi potrebami med seboj ne razlikujejo v stopnji žalovanja, odnosu do žalovanja ali dimenzijah navezanosti, ravno tako smo prišli do ugotovitve, da se starši otrok s posebnimi potrebami glede na starost otroka med seboj ne razlikujejo v stopnji žalovanja. Ugotovili smo, da med starši otrok s posebnimi potrebami obstajajo razlike v stopnji žalovanja, glede na skupino posebnih potreb, v katero se uvršča njihov otrok. Potrdili smo tudi povezavo med dimenzijami navezanosti in stopnjo žalovanja staršev otrok s posebnimi potrebami.The purpose of the MA thesis is to examine the connection between the attachment dimensions and the grief process among parents with a special needs child. With the birth of a special needs child, the family dynamics changes. The grief process makes it possible for the family to restore conditions that enable quality life. The research involved 262 parents of special needs children63.6% being parents to boys and 36.4% parents to girls with special needs. An adapted Caregiver Grief Inventory (Meuser and Marwith 2001) was used to measure the caregivers’ grief process. Their responses to grieving were measured with the Adult Attitude to Grief Scale (Machin 2001) and the attachment dimensions were measured with the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (Collins 1996). We have established that there is no connection between gender of special needs children and their caregivers\u27 degree of grief, attitude to grief or attachment dimensions. Furthermore, we have established that there is no connection between age of special needs children and their caregiver\u27s degree of grief. However, we have established that there are differences in the degree of grieving among parents with special needs children, depending on the group of special needs their children belong to. We confirmed the connection between parents with special needs children\u27s attachment dimensions and the degree of grieving