Fathers Of Young People With Intellectual Disabilities: Supporting Autonomy With Care

The paper presents a study aimed at addressing the issue of the educational and caring role of fathers with a young child with intellectual disability (ID). The key question is: "How do fathers encourage their child’s autonomy and what are their child-rearing styles?” To date, almost all of the research on parents of young people has been conducted with mothers, with very little published work reporting on fathers’ experiences (Glidden & Natcher, 2009). At the same time, a father’s role is essential for a child’s identity building, especially for social emancipation. Indeed, De Singly (2010) talks about the child-rearing process as a voyage of discovery, where father and son go through new life experiences together. We administered a questionnaire to 56 fathers (average age: 53 years; average age of children: 22 years) to investigate their perceptions of the role they play in the upbringing of their children and the feelings they have towards them. Afterwards, the results of the survey were shared with the fathers themselves and with service operators, in order to enhance understanding of social dynamics in families. A statistical analysis of the data demonstrated the following: the relationship between a father and child is above all open and playful, especially that between father and daughter. Fathers describe themselves as sensitive, trusting and loving and are more authoritative with sons. They are committed to listening to their children, to allowing them their own space and to making them respect rules, whereas they find it difficult to deal with their sexual and emotive education, especially older fathers. At the same time, the mother is the parent to whom a child will turn for advice on work and educational choices. Finally, fathers want professionals to provide them with more psychological counseling, as well as greater opportunities to meet other parents of disabled children, to maintain their hands-on parental role (Rowbotham et al., 2011).