Parenting and disability
Disabled parents' experiences of raising children
By Richard Olsen and Harriet Clarke
Published
Apr 16, 2003Page count
208 pagesISBN
978-1861343642Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy Press
Parenting and disability
This book reports on the first substantial UK study of parenting, disability and mental health. It examines the views of parents and children in 75 families. Covering a broad spectrum of issues facing disabled parents and their families, Parenting and disability:
provides a comprehensive review of relevant policy issues;
explores the barriers to full participation in parenting that disabled parents face;
examines the complex ways in which broader social divisions, including gender and socioeconomic status, interact with disability;
advocates measures to support disabled parents and their families by promoting and supporting relationships within the family.
The book is aimed at a wide audience, including students and academics in social policy, social work, disability studies, sociology, education, and nursing, people working in the voluntary sector, disabled activists and their supporters, as well as policy makers and practitioners in a range of statutory agencies.
"... fundamental reading for social workers, healthcare and childhood studies students as well as being an important contribution to disability literature." Journal of Social Policy
"Traditionally, the literature has ignored the parental roles of disabled people, or it has constructed such roles as problematic. Parenting and Disability is an important book because it breaks from this tradition and highlights the importance of providing adequate support to disabled parents in order to facilitate effective parenting." British Journal of Social Work
"... a timely and well-researched text that covers an increasingly important area of enquiry within Disability Studies. Parenting and disability makes an original and important contribution to the field." Colin Barnes, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds
Richard Olsen is a Research Fellow at the Nuffield Community Care Studies Unit, University of Leicester. Parenting and disability, including issues around 'young caring', are his main research interests.
Harriet Clarke is a Lecturer in Psychology and Social Work in the Institute of Applied Social Studies at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests include mental health and parenting.
Contents: Introduction; Invisibility and exclusion; Demographic characteristics of the final sample; Access to support; Children's involvement in domestic and 'caring' work: new insights; The life course: dimensions of change in parenting and disability; Individuals, families and relationships; Conclusion.