ABSTRACT

This study was conducted for the purpose of examining how the emotional interactions of parents of children with developmental disabilities change the couple's intimacy and parenting coping skills. For the study, 20 participants from 10 pairs of parents with children with developmental disabilities were recruited and conducted in-depth interviews, and the collected data was analyzed following the grounded theory of Corbin and Strauss. As a result, 92 concepts, 25 subcategories, and 9 categories were discovered, which were integrated into the core category of “Living as a dyadic parenting team and supporting the family.” The entire process follows the following steps: “Confusion → Individual coping → Transition → Cooperation-adjustment → Maintenance.” However, this process shows a cyclical development where progress and regression intersect. Research suggests that there are four different types of adaptation. They are the “mutual care type,” “combat-comrade type,” “player replacement type,” and “return after neglect type.”

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