Parents with mental retardation and family resources: the narrative of social exclusion in the conditions of extreme poverty [the sample from Republic of Moldova]

The article is analyzing a problem of family resources in the family of single father with mental retardation upbringing two adolescents in the conditions of extreme poverty. Research methodology based on the model of the case study qualitative research within the phenomenological “life world” and hermeneutics approaches. The study has gotten whole description of the father’s “life world” and its structural and essential elements constituting it. It is shown that family “life world” is structured by experience of coping with the extreme poverty within the context of strong social exclusion, and is controlled by the father’s family story and has class socio-economic nature. Family resources such as: health, education, social context and economic conditions of the family and its members are characterized as being affected by different type of limitations and dependence on external “donor’s” sources. The discussion is lifting up the moral-ethical problem of special education and “universal” values and what role should they play in the process of structuring essential elements of ” the life world” experience in such families.VR 2011-41249-90774-43 Human resources in disability and poverty: family perspectiv