Identifying child, parent, and school correlates of stress among parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Abstract

Parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities experience a high degree of stress due to child (e.g., age and type of disability) and parent (e.g., self-mastery and optimism) characteristics. While research has demonstrated a link between parent and child characteristics and parent stress, less is known about the contribution to parent stress of school-related characteristics. The lack of focus on school characteristics is striking, given that many parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities struggle to access school services. To bridge this gap, our study identified child, parent, and school correlates of parent stress among 58 parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Results highlighted a negative correlation between stress and school characteristics, specifically: the quality of the family–school partnership; and family empowerment. Implications for research into parent stress and ways to reduce it are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Stress
• family
• school
• partnership
• empowerment
• intellectual disability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note

Notes

1 The ABCX family crisis model has been described as: A (the stressor event) interacts with B (the family’s crisis-meeting resources), and C (the definition the family makes of the event) to produce X (the crisis). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J002v06n01_02