Emotional and behavioural needs of children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities in an urban conurbation.
Poverty predicts antisocial behaviour in boys with mild ID, while severe ID plus extra disabilities predicts anxiety and self-absorbed behaviour.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Fine et al. (2005) asked parents and teachers about 615 children with intellectual disability living in one big UK city.
They wanted to know which kids showed antisocial acts like fighting or rule-breaking and which showed worry, shyness, or self-absorbed behaviour.
The team looked at gender, how severe the ID was, extra disabilities, and how poor the neighbourhood was.
What they found
Boys with mild ID from poor areas were the ones most often rated as antisocial.
Children with severe ID plus vision, hearing, or mobility problems were the ones rated as anxious, withdrawn, or stuck in repetitive self-play.
Kids with Down syndrome were less likely to show either pattern.
How this fits with other research
Dickson et al. (2005) asked teens with ID to rate their own antisocial acts. Once they accounted for poverty and mental-health diagnoses, the ID label itself no longer predicted antisocial behaviour. The two studies agree: poverty, not ID, drives the rule-breaking.
Chadwick et al. (2000) and Dudley et al. (2008) both showed that daily-living skill gaps and autistic features raise behaviour problems in severe ID. Fine et al. (2005) adds that these same kids also show more anxiety and self-absorbed behaviour.
Amaral et al. (2019) later counted that 35% of kids with ID had depression or anxiety. They found ASD, ADHD, pain, and bullying as new, modifiable risks. Fine et al. (2005) did not measure pain or bullying, so Amaral et al. (2019) extends the risk list you should screen for today.
Why it matters
When you see a boy with mild ID acting out, look at the family’s income and stress level first. Treat the environment before you treat the child. When you see a child with severe ID who is withdrawn or repetitive, check for extra sensory or motor impairments and teach daily-living skills, not just communication. These quick screens save you months of guessing.
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Join Free →Open the intake file: if the client is a boy with mild ID, ask about family income and stress; if the client has severe ID, list any vision, hearing, or mobility problems and add daily-living goals to the plan.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Over the past decade, increased attention has been paid to identifying and responding to the emotional and behavioural needs of children and adolescents with intellectual disability (ID). The aims of the present study were to add to this body of knowledge by identifying factors associated with emotional and behavioural needs among a sample of children with ID drawn from a large urban conurbation. METHOD: Information was collected by postal questionnaire (or interview for family carers who did not have English as their first language) from teachers and from family carers of 615 children administratively identified as having ID (47% of all children with ID). RESULTS: Results indicated that: (1) the administrative prevalence of moderate but not severe ID was associated with social deprivation whereas the prevalence of severe but not moderate ID appeared to be associated with ethnicity; (2) 54% of children scored above the threshold on the Developmental Behaviour Checklist (DBC)-primary family carer, and 37% of children scored above the threshold on the DBC-teacher; (3) social deprivation, male gender, less severe ID and having fewer physical or sensory impairments were associated with antisocial and disruptive behaviour; and (4) more severe ID and additional impairments were associated with anxiety, communication disturbance, social relating and self-absorbed behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: These results identify a range of risk factors associated with behavioural and emotional problems experienced by children with ID.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2005 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2005.00658.x