Life events as a risk factor for psychological problems in individuals with intellectual disabilities: a critical review.
Bad life events forecast depression and behavior problems in adults with ID—screen for them and watch closely after they happen.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors read 40 papers about life events and mental health in people with intellectual disability.
They looked for links between things like moving house, losing a job, or abuse and later signs of depression, anxiety, or behavior problems.
Only adults were studied; kids were left out.
What they found
Bad life events do raise the chance of later depression or behavior problems.
Yet no study proved the event caused the problem; the proof is still soft.
No link to psychosis was seen at all.
How this fits with other research
van Schrojenstein Lantman-de Valk et al. (2006) tracked adults for six months and saw the same pattern: more negative events predicted more depression and behavior issues later. Their data give the narrative review stronger legs.
Lunsky et al. (2011) went one step further. They showed that six exact events—house move, caregiver fight, police contact, long unemployment, abuse, or substance use—sent adults with ID to the emergency room. This turns the broad risk into a short watch list you can use today.
Palka Bayard de Volo et al. (2021) looked only at people with severe-profound ID. They warn that pain, autism, and other confounds can look like depression. So the life-event link is real, but check for medical issues first.
Why it matters
Add a quick life-events box to your intake form. Ask about house moves, job loss, police contact, caregiver changes, abuse, or substance use in the last six months. If any are present, increase your monitoring for new behavior problems or signs of depression, and consider brief check-ins every two weeks until the client stabilizes.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add six quick life-event questions to your intake and flag any ‘yes’ for extra behavior checks.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Stressful life events such as bereavement, moving house and changing jobs have repeatedly been implicated as risk factors for mental and physical ill health. Since the 1940s, researchers have demonstrated the negative effects of stressful life events, refined methods of recording such events and investigated the relative impact of different types of event. These investigations have generally not extended to include people with intellectual disabilities. METHODS: We conducted a narrative review of research on life events as they occur to people with intellectual disabilities and critically assessed the evidence that life events function as a risk factor for psychological problems. Evidence was reviewed for an association between life events and a range of outcome variables, including affective disorders, challenging behaviour, psychosis and psychological problems more generally. We also critiqued the methodology behind the current evidence base and discussed a number of methodological advances that would help to strengthen it. CONCLUSIONS: There is reasonable evidence that life events are associated with psychological problems, and that there is some tentative evidence that life events play a causal role, although to date, no relationship with psychosis in people with intellectual disabilities has been demonstrated. Life events are likely to be pertinent in clinical work with people with intellectual disabilities.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2008 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2008.01110.x