Family Interaction and Anxiety in Families of Children with Learning Disabilities (44 - 58)

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the parent-child interaction in the family and the feeling of anxiety among 20 pairs of parents of Learning Disabilities (LD) children and 20 pairs of parents on non-LD children. The Family Interaction Questionnaire (FIQ) was used to measure the family interaction and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was used to measure the level of among the parents. The LD parents were more anxious than of non-LD parents, and the LD parents reflected a greater emphasis on organization and restriction in the family system. The findings also found that more ambition and more striving for personal achievement were expected by LD parents but free expression of feelings was not encouraged by them. With respect to the interrelations between the feeling of anxiety and family interaction measures, fathers were more concerned about conflicts within the family. On the other hand, the mothers’ anxiety was related to the greater emphasis on academic achievement. Therefore, the result of this study suggest the needs of family counselling, home training program and early intervention service provided and formulated by Department of Special education and other agencies as well.