INFORMATION-PROCESSING AND DEPRESSIVE SYM PTOMS OF MOTHERS OF DISABLED-CHILDREN - THE ROLE OF UNCERTAINTY TOLERANCE, SELF ATTRIBUTIONS, ANDHEALING PROGNOSES

The role of uncertainty tolerance for information processing and psych ological adaption was investigated in a questionnaire study with 94 mo thers of disabled children. With decreasing uncertainty tolerance the mothers should process information more automatically, their rating sh ould become more corresponding with the experts' ratings, and the depr essive symptom's probability should increase. For the causal self attr ibutions a differentiation was recommended between attributions of the child's disability and attributions of the child's concrete problem d eveloped as a concequence of the disability. For uncertainty intoleran t compared to uncertainty tolerant mothers three out of four maternal ratings (disablity- and problem-specific self attribution; problem-spe cific healing prognosis) correlated more strongly with ratings of the psychologists treating the disabled child. When controlled for mood le vel the depressive symptom's probability was higher the more the mothe rs attributed the disablity's cause to themself, the less they attribu ted the cause of the concrete problem to themself, and slightly the sm aller their uncertainty tolerance was.