Coping styles of 34 adolescents with cerebral palsy

Abstract

The author presents a follow-up study of 34 children with cerebral palsy. Eight years previously 23 of these children were attending a special school for handicapped children, and 11 were attending regular schools. The author evaluated the children and their families through formal and informal interviews and by administering parent and teacher rating scales of the children's behavior. He found that the development of these children between the ages of 10 and 14 was highlighted by their increased awareness and their parents' awareness of the permanence of their handicap and their consequent search for personal and, ultimately, occupational identity and their parents' emotional withdrawal.