Adaptation and Accommodation to Young Children with Disabilities: A Comparison of Korean and Korean American Parents

This article presents a comparative study of the adaptation of Korean and Korean American parents to their children with developmental disabilities. Repeated interviews with 16 mothers in each group were designed to elicit parental descriptions of the major chronological events concerning their child, process of adaptation and accommodation, sources of stress and support, and perceived benefits and contributions to their lives. The interviews were conducted in Korean, transcribed, translated, and analyzed in a structured procedure in keeping with one major tradition of qualitative research. Comparative cross-cultural research allows investigators to see taken-for-granted phenomena that might otherwise go unseen. The study revealed that both Korean and Korean American parents experienced a process of transformation in regard to their beliefs and feelings about their exceptional children. Religion played an important role in this process. Public policy, social services, and available resources were dramatically different in the two nations, and these differences suffused parental accounts of their individual experiences. The similarities and differences between the two groups are presented thematically. The findings are further discussed in relation to major theories about adaptation in families of young children with disabilities.