"Why my child?": Parental attributions for children's special needs

Although research exists on how attributions for traumatic life events are related to adjustment, little has focused on parents' attributions for thei r children's special needs. Parents were interviewed twice over 1 year abou t their attributions for their children's special needs. We used parents' o pen-ended responses during the initial interview to construct a ratings sur vey for the second interview. Parents of children with Down's syndrome made attributions to genetic fluke, age, and fate/God's will; parents of autist ic children made attributions to heredity and environment; parents of devel opmentally delayed children made attributions to medical problems and stres s during pregnancy. Self-blame attributions and attributions to the environ ment were related to worse adjustment, whereas attributions to fate/God's w ill were related to better adjustment. Implications for family intervention s and physicians are discussed.