Coping behaviour of disabled persons and their families: cross-cultural perspectives from Norway and Botswana.

In this article a model for analyzing the coping behaviour of families with disabled children is presented. It is demonstrated how this model, through its holistic perspective, may be used for including culture as an important variable in studies of reactions to crisis and coping behaviour in such families. Some cross-cultural perspectives, based on studies from Norway and Botswana are presented, and the universality of reactions to critical events, as established in prominent theories of crisis are questioned.