Are parents identifying positive aspects to parenting their child with an intellectual disability or are they just coping? A qualitative exploration

Although acknowledging the stress of raising their child with intellectual disabilities, parents also report that their child has brought about many positive changes in themselves and family. This study reports what parents perceive to be a positive aspect of parenting their child, as currently what constitutes a ‘positive’ is unclear. Seven key themes were identified; an increased sense of personal strength and confidence, changed priorities, greater appreciation of life, pleasure in the child’s accomplishments, increased faith/spirituality, more meaningful relationships and the positive effect that the child has on the wider community. Interpretive examination of the themes reveals that the positive aspects identified consist mostly of meaning-focused coping strategies. These enable parents to adapt successfully to the stressful experiences of raising their child and therefore could be amenable to meaning-focused therapeutic interventions for parents with newly diagnosed children or for those unable to identify any positive aspects of parenting their child

How parents describe the positive aspects of parenting a child who has intellectual disabilities : a systematic review and narrative synthesis

Background: Identifying what parents describe to be positive about parenting their child who has intellectual disabilities is important for professional practice and how parents can be supported over a lifespan. Method: Studies where parents describe the positive aspects of parenting a child with intellectual disabilities were identified via electronic databases searches and analysed in a narrative synthesis. Results: Twenty-two studies were included in the review. Positive aspects were defined and measured differently across the studies but eight consistent themes emerged that showed the construct to be multifaceted with most themes relating to the intrapersonal orientation of the parent. Conclusion: There is evidence that parents do identify positive aspects of parenting their child with intellectual disabilities, however the construct is poorly defined, not measured in a similar fashion across all studies and lacks theoretical underpinning. Evidence of factors likely to predict a parent’s ability to identify positive aspects is inconclusive. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Wills, J., and Beighton, C. (2019). How parents describe the positive aspects of parenting a child who has intellectual disabilities: a systematic review and narrative synthesis. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, which has been published in final form at [xxxxxxx]. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions