Relationships between psychological independence of the adult people with physically disabilities and their mothers’ commitment to them

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationships between psychological independence of the adult people with physically disabilities and their cognition of the commitment from their mothers. The two questionnaires were conducted to the people; the one was of the psychological independence and anther one was of the mothers’ commitment to them. The results were the followings; it was clarified that characteristics of the psychological independence of the people with physically disabilities were composed of four factors; “self-orientation”,“social-orientation” and “establishment of friendship” and that characteristics of their cognition of the mothers’ commitment to them were composed of “negative commitment”, “protective commitment”and“interference-commitment”. In addition, we found out the relationships among components of both characteristics. That was, intensity of “self-orientation” became to be lower when the people strongly recognized the mothers’ commitment as “negative”, “protection”and“interference”. Furthermore, their intensity of “social-orientation” also got to be lower when they strongly recognized “protection”. It was discussed that psychological independence of the people with physically disabilities could be established through the interpersonal relationships between the people who “have to be assisted by their mothers” and their mothers who “feel to be obliged to assist them”.