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Examining the Down syndrome advantage: mothers and fathers of young children with disabilities
Author(s) -
Stoneman Z.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of intellectual disability research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1365-2788
pISSN - 0964-2633
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2007.01012.x
Subject(s) - psychology , temperament , developmental psychology , down syndrome , depression (economics) , etiology , intellectual disability , set (abstract data type) , clinical psychology , personality , psychiatry , social psychology , computer science , economics , macroeconomics , programming language
Background Across studies and across outcomes, parents of children with Down syndrome have been found to experience greater well‐being than parents of children with other intellectual disabilities (ID). This study examined the extent to which differences in family income and child temperamental difficulty can explain why parents of children with Down syndrome experience greater well‐being. Method Fifty married couples who were parents of young children with ID completed a set of questionnaires measuring child temperament, parent satisfaction with social support, depression and parenting beliefs. Parents were observed interacting with their children. Results When groups were compared without consideration of demographic differences, the findings generally replicated the Down syndrome advantage found by other researchers. After variance attributable to income was removed, however, the Down syndrome advantage disappeared for all parenting and parent wellness measures. The effects of child temperament were confined to maternal and paternal depression. Conclusions Family income was more important than child etiology in predicting the parent measures used in the study.