Perception of Oneself and One's Environment Among Parents who Have Children with Developmental Disabilities and Parents of Typically Developing Children

Sa？etak Parenting of children with developmental disabilities brings many challenges and stressful situations that are related to insufficient professional support (Paster, Brandwein, Walsh, 2009). Furthermore, parents of children with developmental disabilities often experience failure, which causes unreal interpretations regarding their role as parents. Due to the limited initiatives in this research area, the focus of this paper was on comparison of two different groups of parents - parents of children with developmental disabilities and parents who have typically developing children, with the emphasis on their own experience in different life segments. The study included 60 parents, 30 parents of children with developmental disabilities and 30 parents of typically developing children. A Likert scale was used in the research and respondents specified their level of agreement with a statement on a five-point scale. Since the aim was to determine if there was a difference between the two independent groups of parents, the non parametric rank-sum test (Mann-Whitney U test) was used. The results showed that there were significant differences between those two groups related to self-competence and their own perception regarding success, in favour of parents with typically developing children. Furthermore, no differences were found between parents who have children with developmental disabilities and parents who have typically developing children in any of the other domains that were observed (e.g. striving for progress, a positive attitude, productivity and achievements). The obtained results indicate a positive attitude in dealing with various challenging life situations, which could be explained through the existence of one’s own personality and a series of individual events that determine an individual through life (Lackovi？- Grgin, 2011), whereas belonging to a particular group does not need to be taken into account