RESEARCH ON FAMILY QUALITY OF LIFE IN FAMILIES OF YOUNG CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES IN CHINA

Ling GUO

Doctoral thesis

Abstract:

With increasing emphasis on supporting children with disabilities in their home environment, the concept of family quality of life (FQOL) has been proposed on the basis of individual quality of life and has been considered as an important indicator for evaluating the effectiveness of supporting families of children with disabilities. FQOL has been defined as a dynamic sense of well-being of the family, and has been regarded as family members' perceived satisfaction on their family life in this study. The research on FQOL in families of children with disabilities has been highly valued internationally, especially research about families with children who have disabilities at young age. In early intervention area, FQOL has been increasingly recognized as an important concept, and furthermore been regarded as an important index to recognize the outcome of services delivery programs. The purpose of this research is to investigate the current situation of FQOL in families of children with disabilities at young age and try to explore the potential improving strategies for better FQOL based on systematic analysis of the influencing parameters. A mixed method combining quantitative and qualitative approaches has been applied in this research, and both questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview have been used to collect data. For data analysis, SPSS 22.0 has been used to analyze the quantitative data from questionnaire survey, while NVivo11.0 Plus has been used to analyze the qualitative data from interview. Based on analyzing the research data, the research findings have been summarized into four parts in terms of status of the objective family conditions, current situation of FQOL, influencing parameters, and improving strategies as research conclusions. Based on the research findings, reflection of this research from the aspects of revelations and limitations has been done at the end.

Abstract:

With increasing emphasis on supporting children with disabilities in their home environment, the concept of family quality of life (FQOL) has been proposed on the basis of individual quality of life and has been considered as an important indicator for evaluating the effectiveness of supporting families of children with disabilities. FQOL has been defined as a dynamic sense of well-being of the family, and has been regarded as family members' perceived satisfaction on their family life in this study. The research on FQOL in families of children with disabilities has been highly valued internationally, especially research about families with children who have disabilities at young age. In early intervention area, FQOL has been increasingly recognized as an important concept, and furthermore been regarded as an important index to recognize the outcome of services delivery programs. The purpose of this research is to investigate the current situation of FQOL in families of children with disabilities at young age and try to explore the potential improving strategies for better FQOL based on systematic analysis of the influencing parameters. A mixed method combining quantitative and qualitative approaches has been applied in this research, and both questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview have been used to collect data. For data analysis, SPSS 22.0 has been used to analyze the quantitative data from questionnaire survey, while NVivo11.0 Plus has been used to analyze the qualitative data from interview. Based on analyzing the research data, the research findings have been summarized into four parts in terms of status of the objective family conditions, current situation of FQOL, influencing parameters, and improving strategies as research conclusions. Based on the research findings, reflection of this research from the aspects of revelations and limitations has been done at the end.

Keywords

family quality of life, children with disability, young children, China

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 21. 5. 2020

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 13. 7. 2020
• Supervisor: prof. PhDr. PaedDr. Miloň Potměšil, Ph.D.

Palacký University Olomouc

Faculty of Education

Doctoral programme / field:
Special Education / Special Education