Parent Stress and Perceptions of Language Development: Comparing Down Syndrome and Other Developmental Disabilities

This study extended research on the Down syndrome advantage by examining differences in parent stress and parent perceptions of language development between 29 parents of young children with Down syndrome and 82 parents of children with other developmental disabilities. Parents of children with Down...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Family relations 2014-02, Vol.63 (1), p.71-84
Main Authors: Smith, Ashlyn L., Romski, MaryAnn, Sevcik, Rose A., Adamson, Lauren B., Barker, R. Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Autism
Child Development
Children
Children & youth
Communication
Developmental Disabilities
Disabilities
Disability
Down Syndrome
Downs Syndrome
Early intervention
Etiology
Family relations
Genetic Disorders
intellectual and/or developmental disability
Intellectual disability
Language
Language Acquisition
Language development
Language Skills
Mental stress
Parent Child Relations
Parent Child Relationship
parent perceptions of language development
parent stress
PARENTING AND DISABILITIES
Parents
Parents & parenting
Physically Handicapped
Psychological stress
Stress
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This study extended research on the Down syndrome advantage by examining differences in parent stress and parent perceptions of language development between 29 parents of young children with Down syndrome and 82 parents of children with other developmental disabilities. Parents of children with Down syndrome reported lower levels of total stress, child-related stress, and stress surrounding the parent-child interaction. Parents of children in both groups reported that they felt successful in their ability to affect their children's communication development but did differ on perceptions of difficulty such that parents of children with Down syndrome perceived their children's communication difficulties as less severe despite the children exhibiting similar language skills. Finally, after accounting for potential explanatory confounding variables, child diagnosis remained a significant predictor of parent stress and perceptions of language development. Results highlight the importance of considering etiology when assisting families raising a child with a disability.
ISSN:0197-6664
1741-3729
0197-6664
DOI:10.1111/fare.12048