PECULIARITIES OF SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF MOTHERS WHO HAVE CHILDREN WITH MENTAL AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS

The article deals with the results of the theoretical and empirical research of coping-strategies of mothers who have different styles of maternal attitude towards their children with special needs. Individual peculiarities of experiencing a stressful situation by a mother are transformed into a certain style of her maternal attitude, which determines the formation of the predominant coping-strategy of the mother of an abnormal child. The strategies of solving problems and searching for social support (which contribute to the child's socialization) are peculiar to the mothers with an adequate maternal attitude (MA) style. Women with an inadequate MA style (anxious, ambivalent and emotionally-withdrawn) usually choose the strategy of avoiding problems, which is manifested in helplessness, aggressiveness and great distance in their relations withchildren. In order to master active coping-strategies, it is necessary to use the technologies of recreational psychology - recreational institutions, designing situations in a group. The experiment involved 140 mothers of abnormal children, who were divided into 4 groups, depending on their MA style. The following methods were used: technique "Coping-strategies indicator" by D. Amirchan, the technique of affiliation motives by A. Mekhrabin, "The questionnaire of maternal attitude style towards a child with special needs" by T. Dehtiarenko, O. Ziborova. After staying at a summer recreational camp, the indices of active coping-strategies have increased in the groups of mothers with anxious and ambivalent styles of attitude, as they needed social and emotional support more than others. The carried out diagnostics has shown the statistically significant decrease of maternal attitude inadequacy in all observed groups. The lack of necessary information, the absence of the access to the social experience of overcoming the same situations, and poor support of the surrounding people complicate the formation of active coping-strategies in the behaviour of abnormal children's mothers. The research results confirm the efficiency of the capacity of recreation psychology technologies in mastering active coping-strategies by women who have children with special needs.