Quality of Care and Psychological Wellbeing of Differently Abled Children in Embu County Kenya
- September 21, 2021
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Categories: IJRISS, Psychology, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue VIII, August 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186
Quality of Care and Psychological Wellbeing of Differently Abled Children in Embu County Kenya
Henry Kathuri Ndwigah, Stephen Asatsa (PhD) and Elijah N. Macharia (PhD)
Department of Psychology
The Catholic University of Eastern Africa
Abstract: The care of children with motor impairments is a global concern. Their psychological wellbeing is a great concern for those living with them. This study aimed at investigating the quality of care given to these children and their psychological wellbeing in Embu County, Kenya. The study adopted cross-sectional research design to collect data. A sample size of 80 participants was selected using census method. Data were collected using the Ryff’s psychological wellbeing scale, a sociodemographic questionnaire and a self-developed questionnaire for assessment of quality of care given to the differently abled children. The study findings showed that the quality of care given to the differently abled children in the family, residential institutions and educational institutions has weak positive and significant correlation with personal growth domain of the psychological wellbeing scale (r= 0.320, p<0.05; r= 0.329, p<0.05; and r=0.449, p>0.05 respectively. The results imply that enhancing the quality of care to differently abled children is vital in the psychological health of differently abled children.
Key Words: Family Care, Institutional Care, Differently Abled
I. INTRODUCTION
People with different impairments are usually received with mixed feelings by different people in the world. They live either in their families or in residential or in educational institutions (Bayat, 2017). Impairments are visual if associated with sight, audio if associated with hearing, cognitive if associated with mental functioning and motor if associated with limited or no use of limbs (Orr, 2015). This study specifically focused on the children with motor impairments, those with limited use of their limbs. UNICEF (2013) gave a report on the state of the world’s children with disabilities stating that these children have additional challenges and barriers and generally suffer exclusion in many occasions. This basically would raise psychological issues to these children.
Grant, Ramcharan & Flynn (2007) did a study in Europe. The title of the study was “Participation and quality of Life of Children with Disabilities Living in Europe”. This was to investigate the influence of the environment on the participation and quality of life of disabled children aged 8-12 years. It was conducted in seven EU countries, that is, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland (North and South), Italy, Sweden and England. It was found that the participation and quality of life of disabled children and adolescents was lower compared to those without disabilities. This was in terms of social support and peer relationships. The participation and
