ISSUE OF DYSFUNCTIONALITY OF THE FAMILIES WHO ARE PARENTING CHILDREN WITH DISABILITY
The article deals with the study of functioning of families with disabled children. The birth of a baby with a disability can be a traumatic event for parents and can have profound effects on the entire family. The birth of disabled children may affect such family functioning characteristics as cohesion, emotional bond, satisfaction, roles, communication, etc. It is essential that the specialists should be equipped the variety of measures to examined the interpersonal relationships, so that the psychologist can develop the programs to correct the destructive forms of relations. The authors present the program of family functioning studies and the results of functioning research of the families who are parenting a child with disability. In the study participated 30 families raising disabled children aged 6 to 14 years with moderate to severe mental retardation, motor disorders and autism spectrum disorders. In total, the study involved 98 people. The both of them adults and children completed the diagnostic tests and procedures to assess some general characteristics of family relationships and specific aspects of family functioning, such as dominance-submission, cohesion, communication, satisfaction, roles etc. The results suggest that family functioning when there is a disabled child might be injured as for the individual parameters and combination of parameters.