A qualitative analysis of mothers’ childrearing behaviour towards their disabled child

The present study provides a qualitative analysis of mothers’ childrearing behaviour focused on the coercive-inductive dimension, in particular in an effort to show that coerciveness is not always negative, but may be adaptive to the child's characteristics. Thirty-one mothers provided self-reports from a structured interview on their childrearing behaviour to the child in diverse situations. Data analyses examined the associations between the ratings of the mother's reports on the coercive-inductive dimension and three measures: the child's disability (mental, sensory and multiple), the child's personality traits and the child's observable behaviour. Results demonstrated that the mothers’ childrearing behaviours were adapted to their child's characteristics, in particular by combining degrees of coercive and inductive strategies according to situations. They contribute to qualify in a more articulated way the mothers’ childrearing behaviour than through more simple quantitative measures. The discussion finally underlies the interest in analyzing mothers’ reports for research on parent–child interaction and for clinical issue.