母親にとってのPEERとの接触—親の会の意味

Meanings on Having Contact with the Peers and the Parent Support Group for Mothers with Down Syndrome Children

はじめに

　ダウン症児を出産後，母親らは，PEERとの接触において，多くのことを得ると言われている。Puescheal^1）らは，「障害の告知後，使用可能な情報源についての情報提供をふくめ，適切な援助と支援が母親に提供されるか否かは，重要である」と述べている。

　母親らが，どのようなことを先輩である母親らから得たのかを調査した研究は少ない。

　本研究は，母親らの体験から親の会に参加することが母親らにとってどのような意味があったのかについて知る目的をもつ。

　The purpose of this study is to identify meanings on having contact with the peers and the parent support group for mothers with Down Syndrome children. Nineteen mothers (Age range: 29-50 years old; Ave. age: 42.2 years old), who have Down Syndrome children (Age range: 6-12 years old; Ave. age: 8.2 years old) in primary school were interviewed as the study subjects. The semi-structured interview was utilized as a research method. Interviews were taperecorded and categorized by utilizing Lewin's Field Theory.

　Eight categories of fields were identified: 1) a field of exchanging information, 2) a field of emancipating themselves from home and loneliness, 3) a field of identifying peer existence, 4) a field of reality recognition, 5) a field of obtaining future perspectives for their children, 6) a field of enabling them to express their true feelings, 7) a field of learning childcare methods in daily living, and 8) a field of acquiring coping methods to deal with various problems.

　From these results, the importance of peer support was identified, and having contact with peers was effective for mothers with Down Syndrome children. The facilitator role of health workers is thought to be beneficial to mothers with Down Syndrome children in effective adaptation.