Perspectives of fathers and mothers in assessing FQOL in early intervention programs

Family quality of life (FQOL), as a family outcome measure of early intervention services, has increasingly drawn attention of researchers, policy makers and service providers. This dissertation consists of two studies in a series that focused on exploring fathers' and mothers' assessment on their FQOL and as well as two contributing factors of FQOL-family income and severity of child's disability.Study 1, which included fathers and mothers of 107 families who have a child with a disability presents an exploration of similarities or differences between fathers and mothers with respect to their assessments of FQOL. The result of measurement invariance of the FQOL construct across the father and mother groups indicates that the FQOL scale measures equally the underlying FQOL construct across fathers and mothers in early childhood programs. Other findings reveal that fathers do not differ from mothers in assessing their overall family quality of life and they do not differ on five specific domains of FQOL (Family Interaction, Parenting, Emotional Well-being, Physical/Financial Well-being, and Disability-related Support). Implications for research and practice are discussed.Study 2, which included 130 fathers and 262 mothers of the families in the early childhood Part B and C programs presents an exploration of associations between family income and severity of disability and fathers' and mothers' assessments of FQOL in terms of importance and satisfaction. The results reveal that neither family income nor severity of disability is a significant predictor of fathers' and mothers' assessments of FQOL both family income and severity of disability are a significant predictor of mothers' satisfaction ratings of their FQOL severity of disability is a significant predictor of fathers' satisfaction ratings of their FQOL, but family income is not a significant predictor of fathers' satisfaction ratings of their FQOL and there is no interaction effect of family income and severity of disability with respect to fathers' and mothers' importance and satisfaction ratings of FQOL.