A Biosocial Study of Childhood Disability

描述（研究者摘要）：长期以来， 儿童有遭受虐待的危险。本提案建议， 身体或医学上有困难的儿童-取决于他们的 父母的养育史--可能会显示出“前途”和“问题”的提升。“这位 积极（以及消极）应对逆境的可能性反映了 社会和健康科学领域正在出现的范式转变， 疾病/无助/健康风险/乐观/恢复力。拟议 研究，我们关注的是具体的机制（包括 认知和神经激素过程）， 为“受挑战”的孩子们。我们将研究儿童的特征（例如， 听力受损儿童明显的反应迟钝; 视力受损儿童的依赖）和父母的归因偏见， 引导他们关注与他们的工作相关的问题或承诺， 身体或医学上有缺陷的儿童。 我们将评估“挑战”婴儿的未来结果， 他们的早期经历，以及“有挑战性”的年轻人目前的结果， 根据他们过去的经验。对假设进行了检验， 父母归因/期望与子女的交互作用 （1）父母的做法（创造效率促进 （2）儿童的神经激素适应， 压力（习惯化与敏感化），以及（3）儿童的社会/情感和 认知/创造性成果。儿童的荷尔蒙模式和父母 将探讨各种做法，作为以后成果的调解者。最后我们将 研究基于归因的家访计划的好处， “有问题”儿童的父母作为减少风险和培养 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.