Paweł Kurtek

Self-descriptive test of adolescents’ with mild intellectual disability coping in difficult situations with  significant persons (R-PDPI) - experimental version

The paper is concerned on presentation the projective instrument (R-PDPI) to get acquainted with youth’s with mild intellectual disability coping with teacher’s or parental humiliation and dominance and also mates’ bullying and isolation. The cognitive concept of universal social stress was adopted  to prepare the set of daily hassles (Tyszkowa, 1986; Hobfoll, 2006). The Content adequacy was checked by the competent judges (the Difference of Proportion Test for independent data). Then an empirical research in the target group of 17-21 years old made it possible to find the range of the coping strategies, declared by themselves, which were sorted comparatively to dimensions: active, directiveness and social costs (Hobfoll, 2006). Analyzes of discriminative value of type of dealing in each situations enable to find their scope and coherence. So the psychometric goodness of the instrument were proved.

The regulatory role of individual experiences with parents in coping of youth with mild intellectual disability in situations of interpersonal conflicts

Research findings have documented that coping of individuals with mild intellectual disability depends on social and psychological factors (Kościelska, 1998; Zigler, 1999; Switzky, 1999; Kurtek, 2009). The aim of the empirical research was to verify the regulatory role of individual experiences (conscious representation of parental attitudes) in coping of youth with mild intellectual disability in confl icts with parents. In the study of a group of 60 students (age: 14–20) from a special school, psychological methods belonging to a cognitive paradigm were used: te PCR Questionnaire (Parent-Child Relation Questionnaire) by A. Roe and M. Siegelman (1963) and RTSS Questionnaire (Coping in Difficult Social Situations) by Danuta Borecka-Biernat (2003). Both methods were adapted to low reading and understanding skills of the population (shorter items without abstract words).
The results of multiple regression confi rmed the model of tendentious perception of object by R.H. Fazio (1986) in regulating coping strategies. Problem-oriented responses in confl icts with parents are explained in 30% of variance by individual experiences of Love (from mother and father as well) and not Demanding (rather Casual) mother. The predictors of aggressive coping tendency were experiences of father’s Rejection and lack of mother’s Attention (15% of variance). Finally the avoidance coping was explained in 10% by the experience of lack of mother’s Love. Obtained data comply to the holistic model of social rehabilitation of mildly intellectually disabled youth.