Journal on Developmental Disabilities
Le journal sur les handicaps du développement

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of the term empowerment in clinical literature to describe both a desirable process and outcome of service delivery (Dempsey and Foreman, 1997), and it's status as a "buzzword" in disability literature, the term remains more of a theoretical rather than practical construct (Salzer, 1997). Although families of children with developmental disabilities are generally considered to be unempowered, few researchers have examined the predictors and outcomes of empowerment within this population. The purpose of this article is to describe the current theoretical and empirical literature on empowerment, and discuss ways by which the concept can be used in research with families of children with developmental disabilities.

download article >>