Raising a child with disabilities: Mothers’ self-forgiveness and well-being

Disabilities have been proved to negatively affect not only the diagnosed child, but also the family as a whole. Parents’ daily strive to cope with child’s disabilities generate negative feelings like frustration, impotence, and intolerance, as well as lower overall psychological well-being (Cramm & Nieboer, 2011; Ha et al., 2008). Literature underlines that mothers are especially exposed to emotional overload and distress deriving from the strains and perceived failures in providing assistance to their disabled child (Lee, 2013). Maternal wellbeing is particularly important because of its relations with unfavourable parenting practices, poor school performance, and child health problems (Yamaoka et al., 2016). A growing evidence indicates that forgiving oneself for misconducts or mistakes, for which a person feels responsible, helps to reduce their negative effects upon personal and relational well-being (Pelucchi et al., 2017; Whol et al, 2008). However only scant evidence is available on the protective function of self-forgiveness among primary caregivers of disabled persons. The present research intends to address this shortcoming by investigating self-forgiveness among mothers (n=93) having a child with learning disabilities and providing data via questionnaire. Mothers’ self-forgiveness for perceived mistakes done in dealing with their child’s disabilities was expected to be related to their psychological well-being and parenting behaviors both directly and indirectly, through the mediation of the distress and skillfulness experienced while providing learning assistance to the child. Results will be discussed in terms of the need to consider self-forgiveness when planning interventions for increasing well-being among disabled children’s caregivers.