A Study On Family Functioning And Its Relation To Adaptive Behaviors Of Children With Moderate Intellectual Disability

Family functioning is the subjective conditions, under which a family can complete the various tasks. Family functioning is also a comprehensive assessment of the health of the family system, relationship of family members, and ability to adapt to the family environment and other aspects. Adaptive behavior refers to the effectiveness of individual adapting to natural and social environment, i.e., individual capability of independent living and maintaining themselves, and the ability of meeting the desired degree relating to the age and social-cultural condition.The sample used in this study consists of 117 students with moderate intellectual disability from seven special education schools in Shanghai, randomly selecting from grade 1 to grade 3 in the school. This thesis mainly discussed the level and characteristics of family functioning of children with moderate intellectual disability, by a questionnaire survey combined with the method of deeply interviewing with six parents, based on which the relationship between family functioning of children with moderate intellectual disability and their adaptive behavior is studied. The following conclusions are obtained:(1) The family functioning of children with moderate intellectual disability is in the medium level. In the various dimensions of family functioning, the problem-solving is the best functioning, while the roles is the weakest.(2) In the families of children with moderate intellectual disability, the function of affective involvement in the families with girls are evidently better than those with boys; the ability of affective responsiveness of the families with children in grade 2 are better than those in grade 1 and grade 3; the ability of affective involvement of families with children in grade 3 are better than those in grade 1. The roles functioning, affective responsiveness and affective involvement functioning in families with parents with education above college level are better than those with education high school and below; the ability of problem-solving of families in urban are better than those in suburban.(3) In every aspect, the capacity of adaptive behavior of children with moderate intellectual disability is at a low level. There are the individual discrepancies existing in development of adaptive behavior of children with moderate intellectual disability.(4) The roles dimension in the family functioning of children with moderate intellectual disability is significantly associated with the independent factors of the adaptive behavior, while the dimension of affective responsiveness is also significantly associated with the social factors and the independent factors.(5) The affective responsiveness factor in family functioning can predict the adaption quotient; the affective involvement factor can predict the independent factor of adaptive behavior; the affective responsiveness and communication factors can predict cognitive factor of adaptive behavior; affective responsiveness and behavior control factors can predict social factor of adaptive behavior.