A Biosocial Study of Childhood Disability

描述（研究者的摘要）：长期以来，人们一直观察到，残疾人 儿童面临遭受虐待的风险。在此提案中，建议 身体或医学上有障碍的儿童——取决于他们的情况 养育经历——可能显示出较高的“承诺”和“问题”。的 对逆境做出积极（以及消极）反应的可能性反映了 社会和健康科学中正在出现的范式转变 疾病/无助/健康风险/乐观/恢复力。在提议的 研究中，我们关心的是具体的机制（包括 认知和神经激素过程）促进积极与消极 “有问题的”儿童的结果。我们将研究儿童的特征（例如， 听力受损儿童明显反应迟钝；表面的 视障儿童的依赖性）和父母的归因偏差 引导他们关注与其相关的问题或承诺 身体或医学上有障碍的儿童。 我们将根据以下因素评估“有问题”婴儿的未来结果： 他们的早期经历，以及“有困难”的年轻人目前的结果 作为他们过去经验的函数。假设的检验涉及 父母的归因/期望与后代的互动效应 (1) 父母做法的特点（创造促进效能的环境） 经历与虐待/忽视），（2）儿童的神经激素适应 压力（习惯化与敏感化），以及（3）儿童的社交/情感和 认知/创造性成果。儿童荷尔蒙模式和父母 将探索实践作为后来结果的中介。最后，我们将 研究基于归因的家访计划对新人的好处 “有问题”儿童的父母作为降低风险和培养孩子的一种手段 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.