Grandparent Support for Mothers of Children with and without Physical Disabilities

Abstract

Grandparents’ support to families of children with disabilities is generally associated with improved parental well-being. Little research addresses the question of quantitative differences in grandparent support to families of children with and without disabilities. This article examines such differences. Data was collected on 50 mothers of children with spina bifida and 43 mothers of children without disabilities and results showed how mothers rated perceived maternal and paternal grandparent support. No differences were found between mothers of children with and without disabilities. These results confirm previous findings that grandparent support appears to be no more frequent in families of children with disabilities than in other families. These findings are discussed with reference to sampling limitations and implications for further research.