Parent and adolescent positive and negative disability-related events and their relation to adjustment

This project merged Felner's transitional events model with the social model of disability to develop profiles of life events specific to the experiences of parents with acquired physical disability and their adolescent children and examined the relations between these events, severity of disability, and psychological adjustment. Parents and adolescents reported significantly more positive than negative disability-related events. Frequency of parents' negative events correlated significantly with multiple measures of self-reported adjustment, their reports of adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems, and adolescents' self-reports of adjustment. Frequency of adolescents' negative disability-related events correlated significantly with self-reported depression and lower self-esteem. Several correlations between parental rating of severity of disability and number of physical limitations with their and their children's adjustment were significant. Implications for understanding the daily effects of parental physical disability on civilian and military parents and their children are discussed, and recommendations for research on disability in military families are suggested.