FACTORS INFLUENCING THE EXPECTATIONS OF PARENTS FOR THEIR MENTALLY-RETARDED CHILDREN

In terms of treatment for cure, education, training and general inform ation, parental expectations for their mentally retarded children are influenced by various factors such as the age and sex of the retarded child, the level of mental retardation, the education and occupation o f the parents, and the socioeconomic status and area of living. In the present study, an attempt has been made to find out the correlation o f six variables namely, age, sex, literacy, locality of living, level of retardation and duration of follow-up on the expectation of one hun dred parents of mentally retarded children who attend the home-based s ervices at the National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped, Secund erabad, India. The intercorrelation among the six independent variable s and the dependent variable revealed that age of the child and durati on of follow-up have a high correlation (P<0.01), and literacy of the parents and duration of follow-up were positively correlated (P<0.05 l evel). It was also found that age and duration of follow-up have a pos itive correlation. Further detailed multiple regression analysis was c onducted and the results are discussed.