A Biosocial Study of Childhood Disability

描述(研究人员摘要)：长期以来，人们一直观察到残疾人 儿童有遭受虐待的风险。在这项提案中，有人建议 身体或医学上有障碍的孩子--取决于他们的 为人父母的经历--可能会显示出更高的“希望”和“问题”。这个 对逆境做出积极(和消极)反应的可能性反映了 社会科学和卫生科学内部正在出现的范式转变 疾病/无助/健康风险/乐观/韧性。在建议的 研究，我们关注的是具体的机制(包括两者 认知和神经激素过程)，促进积极和消极 “受挑战”儿童的结果。我们将研究儿童的特征(例如， 听力受损儿童的明显的无反应；明显的 视障儿童的依赖)和父母的归因偏差 引导他们专注于与其相关的问题或承诺 身体或医学上有残疾的儿童。 我们将评估“困难”婴儿的未来结局。 他们的早期经历，以及“挑战”的年轻人目前的结果 作为他们过去经验的函数。假设是关于以下方面的测试 父母归因/期望与子女的交互作用 特点：(1)父母的做法(创造促进效能 经验与虐待/忽视)，(2)儿童的神经激素适应 压力(习惯性与敏感化)，以及(3)儿童的社会/情感和 认知/创造性的结果。儿童的荷尔蒙模式和父母 将探讨各种做法，作为日后结果的调解人。最后，我们会 研究基于归因的家访计划对新员工的好处 “困难”儿童的父母作为降低风险和养育孩子的一种手段 机会。

DESCRIPTION (investigator's abstract): It has long been observed that disabled children are at risk for maltreatment. In this proposal, it is suggested that children who are physically or medically challenged--depending upon their parenting history--may show elevated "promise" as well as "problems." The possibility of positive (as well as negative) responses to adversity reflects an emerging paradigmatic shift within the social and health sciences away from sickness/helplessness/risk to health/optimism/resilience. In the proposed research, we are concerned with the specific mechanisms (including both cognitive and neurohormonal processes) that foster positive versus negative outcomes for "challenged" children. We will study child characteristics (e.g., the apparent unresponsiveness of a hearing impaired child; the apparent dependence of a visually impaired child) and parents' attributional biases that lead them to focus either on problems or promise associated with their physically or medically challenged children. We will assess the future outcomes of "challenged" infants as a function of their early experiences, and the current outcomes of "challenged" young adults as a function of their past experiences. Hypotheses are tested with respect to the interactive effects of parents' attributions/expectations and offspring characteristics on (1) parental practices (creation of efficacy-promoting experiences vs. abuse/neglect), (2) children's neurohormonal adaptation to stress (habituation vs. sensitization), and (3) children's social/emotional and cognitive/creative outcomes. Children's hormonal patterns and parental practices will be explored as mediators of later outcomes. Finally, we will study the benefits of an attribution-based home visitation program for new parents of "challenged" children as a means of reducing risk and fostering opportunity.