Power, Julie (2007) Empowerment in Early Intervention: Understanding and empowering caregivers of young children with a developmental disability. Coursework Masters thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Many studies consistently report that Family Centred Services (FCS) provision empowers caregiver’s of young children with a disability to access and utilise early intervention services to achieve quality of life outcomes for themselves, their child and their family. This preferred model of service delivery emphasises an enabling partnership between caregivers and service providers that supports, encourages and enhances the competency of parents and carers of young children with a disability in their role as caregivers. However, it is not the service type alone that positively influences caregiver empowerment rather, it is a contributing factor, along with other factors including individual caregiver attributes, such as self-efficacy and problem-solving. This study investigated the interrelationship between the variables, enabling partnerships in FCS, self-efficacy and problem–solving, and caregiver empowerment. Participants were 65 caregivers of young children (aged 0-6 years) with a disability accessing state funded paediatric early intervention services. The Measure of Process of Care – Enabling Partnerships was used to measure enabling partnership in FCS, the Parent Sense of Competency was used to measure self-efficacy, the Social Problem-Solving Inventory- Revised was used to measure problem-solving, and the Family Empowerment Scale was used to measure caregiver empowerment. As predicted, enabling partnerships in FCS, self-efficacy and problem-solving were all positively related to caregiver empowerment. However, FCS and caregiver self-efficacy were found to be dominant factors in this relationship. Problem-solving was not predictive of cargiver empowerment. Consistent with the notion that support group participation influences empowerment, support was found in the study for the hypothesis that caregivers attending a support group differed from those that do not attend a support group on perceived empowerment. Implications for these findings are discussed.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Coursework Masters) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Sciences - Department of Psychology (Up to 30 Jun 2013) |
| Supervisors: | Andrea Quinn |
| Qualification: | Masters of Health Psychology |
| Date Deposited: | 17 Nov 2025 23:27 |
| Last Modified: | 17 Nov 2025 23:27 |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52674 |
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