Predictors of proactive coping of specialists working with families raising children with disabilities

Abstract

Families raising a child with disabilities require assistance from a variety of helping specialists who advise on parenting and child education. Stress resistance and the ability to cope with difficulties are important qualities for such specialists (defectologists, speech therapists, psychologists, etc.). They should have proactive skills of coping with a difficult situation, as they are always involved in the life of the family and must be flexible in different circumstances, have a positive sense of time and instill hope in parents. Our study aims to determine the predictors of coping behavior in specialists working with families raising children with disabilities. The article presents the results of an empirical study of 83 helping specialists (39 speech pathologists, 40 speech therapists, 4 special psychologists) aged from 22 to 43 years (M=25.5; SD=6.394), including 12 men and 71 women. All the specialists work in different institutions in Khabarovsk. The following methods were used in the study: the Proactive Coping Behavior Questionnaire (adapted by E.P. Belinskaya et al.), R. Schwarzer’s Proactive Attitudes Scale (adapted by A.A. Bekhter), and F. Zimbardo’s Time Perspective Questionnaire (adapted by S. Syrtsova). The results of hierarchical regression at the last step showed that significant predictors of coping behavior with a positive contribution include: age 35 years (β=0.238 at p=0.014), male gender (β=0.198 at p=0.016), proactive attitudes as a positive attitude towards the future (β=0.408 at p=0.018), parameters of the hedonic present (β=0.449 at p=0.032), and the search for instrumental support (β=-0.379 at p=0.017). Proactive attitudes and the hedonic present make the most significant contribution to the proactive coping of specialists, which is an interesting finding. The negative contribution of seeking instrumental support is similarly interpleasure in the present promotes a positive attitude towards future events and develops the ability to proactively cope, while turning to social networks has a negative effect on proactive coping. Future research may further explore the personal resources and coping with stress in specialists working with families having children with disabilities.