thesis

Impact de la naissance d'un premier enfant handicapé sur la constitution de la famille

Defense date:

Jan. 1, 1992

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Institution:

Paris 5

Disciplines:

Directors:

Abstract EN:

From a sample of seventy-six families whose first-born handicapped children suffer either from genic and chromosome aberrations or from cerebral palsy, a statistical survey studies variables having an incidence on the reproductive behaviour of the family : the primiparous mother's age, the etiology of the handicap, the sex of the siblings, the average age intervals between the siblings and the parents' socio-economic background. Twenty-six interviews with parents allow complementary variables to be examined : the diagnosis, the parents' guilt and depressive feelings, the death wishes towards the handicapped child as well as the visibility of the handicap and the position of the brothers and sisters within the family. The results lay stress on the importance of the diagnosis (when and how it was expressed), the etiology of the handicap which influences the degree of guilt and the sex of the siblings. In the three clinical groups, the third child turns out to be the one who makes the parents' guilt and depression significantly fade away.

Abstract FR:

A partir de soixante-seize familles ayant un premier enfant handicape (aberrations geniques et chromosomiques, infirmite motrice cerebrale), une enquete statistique etudie differentes variables pouvant interer sur la constitution de la famille : l'age de la mere primipare, l'etiologie du handicap, le sexe des enfants, les intervalles intergenesiques moyens, la categorie socio-professionnelle des parents. Vingt-six entretiens cliniques aupres de parents d'enfants trisomiques, infirmes moteurs cerebraux ou mucoviscidosiques permettent l'etude d'autres variables : le diagnostic, la culpabilite et les manifestations depressives parentales, les voeux de mort a l'egard de l'enfant handicape, la visibilite du handicap, la place des enfants puines. Les resultats mettent en avant l'importance fondamentale du diagnostic (quand et comment a-t-il ete donne aux parents), l'etiologie du handicap qui determine l'intensite de la culpabilite, le sexe des enfants dans la fratrie. Dans les trois groupes cliniques, le troisieme enfant est souvent celui qui leve la culpabilite et les manifestations depressives parentales.