Mothers with spinal cord injuries: Impact on marital, family, and children's adjustment

Objective: To evaluate how mothers with spinal cord injury (SCI) adjust to parenting, their marriages, and their families, and how their children adjust to their mothers' disability. Design: Randomized control study of mothers with SCI and their children, matched to able-bodied mothers and their children on key demographic variables. Setting: Subjects Were selected from 7 regional Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems from across the United States. Participants: A total of 310 Volunteers (experimental: 88 mothers With SCI, 46 partners, 31 children; matched controls: 84 able-bodied mothers, 33 partners, 28 children). Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Children's adjustment, gender role identity; self-esteem children's attitude toward mother and fathers dyadic and family adjustment; parenting stress and satisfaction. Results: No significant differences were found between mothers with SCI and able-bodied mothers. Moreover, there Were no significant differences between children raised in families With mothers with SCI and children raised in families with able-bodied mothers. Also, no significant differences were found in dyadic or family functioning with mothers with SCI or able-bodied mothers. Conclusions: SCI in mothers does not appear to affect their children adversely in terms of individual adjustment, attitudes toward their parents, self-esteem, gender roles, and family functioning. Our results may challenge health care providers, social policy-makers, and the general public to end negative stereotyping of children, couples, and families with a disabled mother and wife.