EXPLORING THE PARENTING STYLES FOR CHILDREN WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT: PARENTS’ PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Parenting is an essential responsibility of the parents especially when it is concerned with visually impaired children. Parents have to perform exceptionally in life for children with visual impairment to prepare them for various challenges in their lives. This study was qualitative and exploratory. Through the purposive sampling technique, five (05) parents aged 35 to 55 were selected as a test for this study. A self-developed semi-structured interview protocol was administered for in-depth interviews of the participants. The researchers administered an open coding technique to generate codes and categories. The researchers employed thematic analysis to discern meaningful patterns among the narratives of the participants of the study. Four (04) major themes emerged from the thematic analysis i.e., perception for visual impairment, parenting for visually impaired children, problems for parents, and strategies for good parenting. The findings of the study revealed that parents accept the visual impairment of their children as a natural problem and they feel helpless. However, the results showed that some of the parents use authoritative parenting styles with their children and some of the parents use friendly behaviour with the visually impaired children. This study suggests that parents of visually impaired children should be provided with mental health resources and counselling services to cope with the stress and emotional challenges. Moreover, regular orientation sessions should be conducted to educate the parents of visually impaired children.