Stress trajectories in mothers of young children with Down syndrome.
Stress in moms of kids with Down syndrome starts low but rises each year until age four, unlike the flat high stress seen in other developmental disabilities.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lancioni et al. (2006) tracked stress in moms of preschoolers with Down syndrome. They compared these moms to moms of kids with other developmental disabilities. The team measured stress at four time points from child age three months to four years.
What they found
Moms of kids with Down syndrome started with lower stress than the other group. Their stress crept up each year and peaked around age four. Moms of kids with mixed disabilities stayed high and flat the whole time.
How this fits with other research
Azad et al. (2013) extends the story. They followed families into middle childhood and saw stress start to drop, but only if kids had fewer behavior problems.
Eisenmajer et al. (1998) seems to disagree. That study said moms of kids with other disabilities had the highest stress. The gap comes from design: R took one snapshot, while E watched the same families for years.
Lanfranchi et al. (2012) backs the low-start idea. Across five syndromes, Down syndrome parents again scored lowest on stress.
Why it matters
Do not assume Down syndrome families need less help just because stress starts low. Plan your parent training to ramp up around the fourth birthday. Add behavior-reduction goals early so the climb never gets steep. Offer respite or coping-skills groups before stress peaks, not after.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: In this study, we investigated the early development of stress in mothers of children with Down syndrome, compared with mothers of children with developmental disabilities of mixed aetiologies. Growth modelling analyses were used to explore: (1) whether mothers of children with Down syndrome demonstrated distinct patterns of stress during their children's early development, compared with mothers of children with other developmental disabilities; and (2) whether there was a relation between child behavioural characteristics and the level and rate of change in stress observed in each population. METHOD: The stress trajectories of mothers of young children with Down syndrome (n = 25) and a mixed-aetiology comparison group (n = 49) were estimated, using growth modelling on data collected at ages of 15, 30 and 45 months. RESULTS: On average, stress in the mixed comparison group was higher at Time 1 and remained unchanged over time, while stress in the Down syndrome group was lower at Time 1 but increased steadily. After taking diagnostic group membership into account, more advanced cognitive-linguistic functioning and lower levels of maladaptive behaviours at all time points were associated with lower levels of maternal stress. CONCLUSIONS; These findings suggest that the cognitive-linguistic and behavioural trajectory observed in early development in Down syndrome may contribute to the changes in maternal stress levels observed throughout these early years. Implications for developing targeted and time- sensitive family interventions for families of children with Down syndrome are discussed.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2006 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2006.00796.x