Gabrielle Hindmarsh

Mothers with intellectual impairment and their 9-month-old infants.

BACKGROUND Few studies have utilised population-based data to examine the lives of families headed by parents with intellectual impairment. This study examined the health and social context of mothers with intellectual impairment compared with their peers without intellectual impairment, and the 9-month developmental outcomes of their infants. METHOD Secondary analysis of the first wave of the United Kingdoms Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). Wave 1 data were collected when the child was 9 months of age and recorded in-depth information of maternal health, the social context in which the families live, and developmental outcomes of the infants. RESULTS Of the 18 189 mothers, 74 (0.4%) were classified as mothers with intellectual impairment. The findings show evidence of widespread disadvantage in terms of social context and poorer self-reported physical health for mothers with intellectual impairment compared with their peers without intellectual impairment. Maternal mental health and the developmental outcomes of their 9-month infants were not markedly different between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS The cross-sectional analyses used in this study shows the differences in the lives of mothers with intellectual impairment and their young infants compared with their peers. Longitudinal analyses across subsequent waves of the MCS will allow protective and risk factors in the early years that influence later developmental outcomes to be identified.

Parents with Intellectual Disability in a Population Context.

Parenting by people with intellectual disability continues to confront societal sensibilities. On the one hand, parents with intellectual disability engage in the valued social role of raising children; on the other, their parenting attracts (typically negative) attention based on an expectation of their limited capacities to parent. The literature primarily addresses the question of whether or not parents with intellectual disability can be adequate parents or reports on methods for improving their parenting skills. An emerging trend in the literature over the last decade takes a different perspective. Rather than concentrating exclusively on parents with intellectual disability, this perspective focuses on their parenting situation compared to that of other parents more generally. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge about parents and parenting with intellectual disability in this broader population context. The focus of the paper is on the use of larger scale datasets to understand the situation of parents with intellectual disability compared with other parents and to examine the contextual variables that influence their parenting.

The Social-Emotional Well-Being of Children of Mothers with Intellectual Impairment: A Population-Based Analysis

BACKGROUND Children of parents with intellectual impairment are thought to be at risk for poor social-emotional well-being. This study investigated the relationship between maternal intellectual impairment and poor child social-emotional well-being. METHOD Secondary analysis of data from waves 2-4 of the Millennium Cohort Study (UK). Social-emotional well-being was measured by maternal report at Waves 2-4, with teacher and child self-report at Wave 4. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. RESULTS Unadjusted, maternal intellectual impairment was associated with an elevated risk of overall poor social-emotional well-being at ages 3 and 5, but not at age 7. After controlling for individual, family and environmental characteristics, no statistically significant association was found between maternal intellectual impairment and poor child social-emotional well-being. CONCLUSIONS Children of mothers with intellectual impairment are more likely than their peers to be exposed to adverse living conditions. These living conditions may explain, at least in part, why these children face a heightened risk of poor social-emotional well-being at ages 3 and 5. Improving the living conditions of mothers with intellectual impairment may offer a pathway to child social-emotional well-being.