EMPOWERMENT STATUS OF FAMILIES WHOSE CHILDREN HAVE SERIOUS EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE AND ATTENTION-DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER/

Empowerment is a critical indicator of a family's ability to access an d effectively utilize services to achieve desired outcomes for themsel ves and their children. The empowerment status of two groups of famili es, those with children who had serious emotional disturbance (SED) al one and those with children who had SED combined with attention-defici t/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), were investigated. The Family Empower ment Scale (FES) was completed by a sample of 228 families. In additio n, these families provided demographic data concerning family composit ion, race, education, income, membership in a parent support group, an d the mental health status of their children. The demographic variable s were entered into a multivariate analysis of variance model to predi ct the empowerment status of families across the four subscales of the FES. Statistically significant correlations were obtained between fam ily empowerment and membership in a parent support group, mental healt h status of the child (SED alone versus SED with ADHD), gender of the respondent, and respondent education. The results indicated that membe rship in a parent support group was a strong predictor of family empow erment, particularly of the systems advocacy and knowledge dimensions of empowerment. The results of this study can be used by mental health services providers for designing services that maximize family empowe rment.