Marital Relationship in Greek Families Raising a Child with a Severe Disability

Introduction. The target of the study is to examine important aspects of the marital relationship: marital satisfaction, spouse’s representation of the marital relationship, roles and boundaries in families raising a child with a severe disability. Also, this study compares families with a child with a severe disability to those with children without disability on the same characteristics.Method. The sample consists of 120 participants from nuclear families (30 couples with a child with a severe disability and 30 couples with children without disability) who were middle socio-economic class and permanent residents of the island of Rhodes, Greece. This study constitutes a qualitative survey with quantitative comparative elements. Data were collected using the Μarital Happiness Scale and semi-structured interviews.Results. The findings suggest that there is no statistically significant difference between groups in their marital relationship; however, marriage, in the couples with a child with disability, is largely determined by the child’s needs. Although mothers of children with a severe disability undertake most child-related responsibilities, couples seem to safeguard their equilibrium by undertaking highly complementary roles.Conclusion. There are more similarities than differences between couples raising children with or without disability regarding marital satisfaction, role assignment, representation of the marital relationship and boundaries. Future research efforts should be directed to the area of marital relationship aiming family practitioners, clinicians and educators to include both spouses in the evaluation and treatment of the child with a severe disability and to incorporate families into child’s care and education.