Desire to have other children in families with a chronically disabled child and its effect on the relationship of the parents.

AIM The aim of this study was to examine the desire of the parents who had a chronically disabled child to have other children and to investigate the effect of having a disabled child on the relationship of the parents. MATERIAL AND METHODS The families of 145 chronically disabled children were included in the study. After the sociodemographic information belonging to the child and family were obtained, the prepared questionnaire form was used to interrogate if the parents lived together, the number of children in the family, if they wished to have other children and the relation of the disabled child with the household. Ethics committee approval was obtained from Dokuz Eylül University (date: 18.10.2012, decision number, 2012/34-13). The data obtained in the study were expressed as figures and percentages. RESULTS While 91.7% of the parents continued their relationship, 2.8% were divorced and 1.4% were left by their spouses. The rate of the parents who did not wish to have (or did not have) other children after a disabled child was found to be 65.2%. The major reason for the families not to wish to have other children was found to be the fact that they thought they could not spare enough time for their disabled child. While 35.1% of the parents stated that clemped together more tightly, 35.2% stated that their concerns about the future increased further. Fifty eight percent of the parents stated that social relations and community involvements were not affected, whereas others stated that they were affected in different ways. CONCLUSIONS Although the relationship between the parents was not affected to a great extent in families who had chronically disabled children, it was found that parents intensively experienced concern for the future. It was found that this also affected the desire of the parents who had a chronically disabled child to have other children with the concern that the child will be disabled.