Personal and social life of Israeli aging mothers to adult children with intellectual disabilities: differences related to family status and living arrangement

Abstract

This study explores whether aging mothers living in two-parent families whose offspring with intellectual disabilities do better in respect to their undesired daily life events, level of social support and well-being scores than mothers of one-parent families and whether there is difference related to their living arrangement (living with their offspring at home or out-of-home)? Sample consists of 160 Israeli aging mothers of adult children with intellectual disabilities living at home or out-of-home. Core findings show that one-parent mothers do worse in respect to undesired life events than those living in two-parent ones. However, mothers of one-parent families whose adult children live at home report more engagement with family members than those of two-parent families whose children live out-of-home.

Keywords:

• Aging mothers
• one-parent and two-parent families
• adult children with intellectual disability
• living arrangement
• instrumental activities of daily living
• undesired life events
• social support
• well-being