Loneliness Among Children with Special Needs: Theory, Research, Coping, and Intervention

ISBN-13: 9781461276111 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 228 str.

Malka Margalit

Opis

Loneliness Among Children With Special Needs is a groundbreaking volume that examines this vitally important, but heretofore neglected topic. Based on the shared view, from both clinical experience and research, that children with disabilities experience more loneliness than nondisabled children. This book integrates the existing knowledge, research, and applications in order to provide a model for the examination and understanding of the loneliness experiences of children with learning disabilities, behavior disorders, mild mental retardation, and emotional difficulties. Divided into five sections, the first attempts to clarify the characteristics of the lonely child, followed by a section with chapters devoted to environments and interpersonal relations. The third section is concerned with the subtyping of loneliness and adjustment and the fourth section discusses the outcomes comes of loneliness through coping and interventions. The final section provides a summary of the research using the proposed loneliness model for children with disabilities. This volume is essential reading for all researchers, clinicians, educators and students who work with children with special needs and who, as stated in the Preface, "see the importance of companionship for promoting growth of children with special needs and the costs of loneliness for current life and future adjustment."

Spis treści

Section I. Loneliness Attributes.- 1 Theoretical Approaches to Loneliness.- What is loneliness?.- Types of loneliness.- The developmental perspective.- Disabilities and loneliness.- Conclusions.- 2 Personal Aspects of Loneliness.- Self-perceptions.- Social skills.- Attribution style.- Conclusions.- Section II. Interpersonal Family and Peer Contexts.- 3 Family Environment.- Stages in connectedness.- Children’s disabilities and parental stress.- Child characteristics.- Parental characteristics.- Family characteristics.- Loneliness and parental attitudes.- Conclusions.- 4 Peer Relations and Children’s Friendships.- Social status: Acceptance and rejection.- Friendship relations.- Friendship and status.- Classroom climate, friendship, and loneliness.- Conclusions.- Section III. A Subtyping Approach.- 5 Subtyping Approach to Loneliness Research.- Subtyping aggressive children.- Subtyping rejected children.- Subtyping of students with learning disabilities.- Subtyping comparisons for groups with learning disabilities and behavior disorders.- Discussion of the two studies.- Conclusions.- Section IV. Coping and Intervention.- 6 Coping with Loneliness.- Stress and coping.- Categories for coping with loneliness.- Individualized coping style.- Conclusions.- 7 Approaches in Intervention Research.- Conclusions from prior interventions.- Social intervention models: Deficit and systemic approaches.- Model-based interventions for externalizing maladjustment.- Integrating the two models: The script intervention.- Implications for interventions with lonely children.- Conclusions.- Section V. Epilogue: Development, Disabilities, and Loneliness.- 8 Summary and Future Directions.- The world of the family.- The world of peers.- Subtyping of loneliness and adjustment.- Coping and resilience.- Empowering the lonely child.- Transactional relations.- Diversity in social functioning.- 9 Issues for Further Exploration.- Sense of coherence and loneliness.- Change and change agents.- Future research directions.- References.- Author Index.

O autorze

Loneliness Among Children With Special Needs integrates the existing knowledge, research, and applications in order to provide a model for the examination and understanding of the loneliness experiences of children with learning disabilities, behavior disorders, mild mental retardation, and emotional difficulties. This volume is essential reading for all researchers, clinicians, educators and students who work with children with special needs.