The proposed study focuses on two main samples. The first and primary focus is on the longitudinal sample of families who entered the study in 1982-93. At that time, these families had a child with severe handicaps between the ages of 3 and 8. We have studied the impact of a child with severe handicaps on the family for 3/4 of a decade. About a quarter of the original sample has placed their child out-of-home. The remaining families now face a potential two-fold crisis--the onset of adolescence and a shift in the life-cycle of the family. While the majority of the 68 families who still have the child with severe handicaps at home have demonstrated the determination to keep their child at home up until now. they face two new challenges to their caregiving over the next five years that will greatly influence their plans for placement. One is the size of the child, and the ensuing physical care demands on parents; the other is increasing recognition that the child's nonhandicapped peers will soon be moving out of their homes (either to college or to live on their own). Placement at this time (i.e., between the ages of 13 and 18) may thus be seen as more normative, and consequently more likely for some of these families. A second focus over the next five years will be to expand our study beyond a primarily white, middle-class population to the population that will dominate Los Angeles by the year 2000--Hispanic families. In Southern California we are in a unique position to study the impact of a handicapped child on the Hispanic family. Furthermore, we are able to assess such impact in families where parents are bilingual as well as in families where parents are monolingual Spanish-speaking. A third focus, though more minor effort, will be comprised of a collaboration with investigators examining some identical constructs in-families representing yet another stage of the lifespan--aging caregivers of adult mentally retarded offspring.
We aim to look across samples, and within combined samples as appropriate, at the following: dimensions of family environments; content of social support networks; relationship of social support networks to other aspects of coping; and factors influencing out-of-home placement at different points of the lifespan.
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