Background: The right of people with disability to be self-determining, to live a life of their choosing, is increasingly recognized and promoted. For adults with intellectual disability, support to enable self-determination may be required. This is often provided by family, yet little is understood about the experience of providing such support.…

Background: Scientific knowledge on the quality of caregiving/maternal sensitivity among mothers with mild intellectual disabilities (ID) is limited and subject to many methodological shortcomings, but seems to suggest that these mothers are less sensitive than mothers without intellectual disabilities. Methods: In this matched-comparison study…

Background: There might be a need for support for families where the mother has an intellectual disability, in order to counteract the effects of potential parental inadequacy and other detrimental aspects of the family situation. The purpose of this study was to describe how professionals characterized such support and the collaboration required.…

Background: Mothers with intellectual disability face socioeconomic disadvantage and social isolation, which is associated with poorer child outcomes. Social services feature prominently in the lives of mothers with intellectual disability especially those without informal support; however, the role of formal support in the lives of their children…

Background: With increasing numbers of people with an intellectual disability choosing to become parents, the right support is imperative for effective parenting (Macintyre & Stewart2011]). The aim of this study was to gain insight into the experiences of parents who received support from Doulas during pregnancy, birth and following the birth…

Background: This study explored the experiences of working mothers with an adult child with intellectual disabilities to understand how they reconcile paid work and care responsibilities. Methods: Fifteen working mothers in Taiwan with an adult child with intellectual disabilities were interviewed, and an interpretative phenomenological approach…

Background: For parents of disabled children, the role of advocate often develops to a level of frequency and complexity that other parents do not usually face. This paper considers whether this high level of advocacy translates into a form of activism on the part of mothers and if so, why this shift might occur. Materials and Methods: The broader…

Background: This study reports development of a social support scale appropriate to the Vietnamese culture and the impact of social support on mothers of children with cognitive delays by using the developing scale. Method: Interview surveys were conducted with 225 mothers of children with and without cognitive delays in Vietnam. The structural…

Background: The support networks of mothers with intellectual disabilities play an important role in caring for children. Understanding the support provided by the network is therefore vital in understanding the capacity of a mother to care for her child. Nevertheless, how these important networks came into existence is yet to be explored.…

Background: Individuals with intellectual disability are at higher risk of premature death compared with individuals without intellectual disability, and therefore parents of people with intellectual disability are more likely to outlive their children. However, there has been relatively little research investigating the bereavement experiences of…

Background: The study explores the experiences of parents of individuals with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), and examines the influences of parent gender and child age on perceived stress, stress and coping, child-rearing involvement, support and information/education accessed. Methods and Materials: Questionnaires assessed general perceived…

Background: Given appropriate supports mothers with intellectual disabilities can successfully raise their children. Historically, this support has been provided by extended family members while support from formal services is a recent development. This paper examines the role of extended family members in assisting mothers with intellectual…

Background: There is a general agreement in the literature that no systematic correlation exists between parental intellectual disability "per se" and parenting performance. Yet, a few studies in the field of parents and parenting with intellectual disability have explored other potential determinants of parenting and child outcomes. In…