Family Systems Correlates of the Behavior of Young Children with Handicaps

The relationship between social support, personal well-being, family well-being, and four dimensions of child behavior characteristics and child progress were examined in a study of 47 mothers and their young children with handicaps. The results showed that well-being, and to a lesser extent social support, were significantly related to child behavior characteristics, and that well-being and child behavior characteristics were significantly related to child progress. The implications of the findings for understanding the broader-based, social systems contexts of the development of young children are discussed.