The influence of perceived job flexibility and spousal support on the marital satisfaction of parents of children with special needs

Abstract

Parents of children with special needs can experience more stress in their marriage than parents of children without special needs. Previous work has focused on the child as a major influence for the marital relationship, however this research sought to examine less commonly discussed factors that influence marital satisfaction for these parents. Perceived job flexibility and perceived spousal support in parenting were targeted as potential influencers. A mediation model was attempted to explain the mediating role of perceived spousal support in parenting in the relationship between perceived job flexibility and marital satisfaction. Results showed no correlation between perceived job flexibility and marital satisfaction. Positive correlations between perceived job flexibility and perceived spousal support in parenting were found and positive correlations were also seen between perceived spousal support in parenting and marital satisfaction. Analysis produced a more linear model of influence than the predicted mediation model. Implications of these findings were discussed. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Lindsay Wright, for her invaluable guidance, her personal interest in my research, and her support through this process. I would also like to thank another committee member, Dr. Amanda Williams, who readily responded to my many emails and who was instrumental in fostering my understanding of data analysis. Also, I would like to thank another committee member, Dr. Heath Grames, for his helpful feedback and his knowledgeable contributions during this process. iv DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this project to the many families that I have had the honor to work with over the years and who are the inspiration for my research. I would also like to thank my family for all of the encouragement and confidence they have given me in this pursuit. Additionally, I would like to thank my partner, Jeremy Chojnacki, as it is his support and his unfaltering belief in me that has helped me to achieve my goals. v

A scoping review on couples’ stress and coping literature: Recognizing the need for inclusivity

“…One article (4%; Goldberg et al, 2010) framed the study within the ABCX model in combination with Bronfenbrenner’s (1992) ecological theory, and one article applied Conger’s family stress model in combination with STM (Mitchell et al, 2015). Some papers ( n = 6, 21%) did not include any of the family stress, dyadic coping, or support theories (see Perlowski & Wright, 2021 as an example). These studies referred to Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) individual stress theory, Bronfenbrenner’s (1992) ecological model, life course theory (Giele & Elder, 1998), Acitelli’s (1992) relationship awareness, and social capital (Coleman, 1990).…”

“…Most articles ( n = 12; 43%) referred to general support/coping, nine (32%) examined this specific to one identity (e.g., perceived spousal support in parenting; Perlowski & Wright, 2021), and seven (25%) referred to coping or support related to multiple interacting identities (e.g., spousal support with parenting and homecare for working mothers; Dickson, 2020). Notably, three of the seven articles (11%) focusing on partner support or dyadic coping used qualitative methodology.…”

“…In particular, Bodenmann and Randall (2013) acknowledge the importance of social relationships, namely one's romantic partner, in coping with stress associated with psychiatric disorders, which can also be applied to other aspects of ability status. However, only a handful of articles focused on an aspect of ability, which included parents of a child diagnosed on the autism spectrum (Brown et al, 2020) and special needs (Perlowski & Wright, 2021), coping with cancer (e.g., Gao et al, 2020), chronic illness (e.g., Badr, 2004) and HIV (Feinstein et al, 2018). Taken together, the field has limited knowledge in understanding how partners of families may cope with differing disabilities, which include but are not limited to vision, mobility, learning, hearing, and mental health diagnoses.…”

Negative Life Experiences, Substance Use, Well-Being, and Resilience: A Comparison of Deaf and Hearing Adults

“…However, the finding of deaf participants experiencing parental separation or divorce in childhood is supported by the literature. The birth of a child with disabilities can be stressful and impact the marital and family relationships (Chowdhury, 2018;Perlowski & Wright, 2019;Shahrier, et al, 2016). Diagnosis, severity of the disorder, parental coping strategies, resources, and community support can impact the degree to which a marriage can be sustained.…”

Analysis Invariance Between Gender Of The Satisfaction With Parenting

“…Thus, we found that Russian scholars pay more attention to the topic "satisfaction with parenting". In these studies, related to satisfaction with parenting, scholars discussed more key words such as: family structure (Rogers and White 1998), parenting pressure (Carey et al 2009;Sevastyanova 202), parental responsibility (Henderson et al 2016), marital satisfaction (Perlowski et al 2019;Malenova and Borovikova 2008), life satisfaction (Mahmoud et al 2021).…”