An initial look at the quality of life of Malaysian families that include children with disabilities.
Ask families to rank life-domain importance next to satisfaction; where importance beats satisfaction, add disability-specific supports.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Griffith et al. (2012) asked 52 Malaysian families raising a child with developmental delay or intellectual disability to fill out the Family Quality of Life Survey. Parents rated how important each life domain felt and how satisfied they were with it. The team then looked for links between importance, satisfaction, and overall family quality of life.
What they found
Families said every life domain mattered a lot. Satisfaction scores were only modest, and they lined up weakly with global quality of life. In short, high hopes met so-so reality.
How this fits with other research
Robinson et al. (2011) ran the same survey in Slovenia one year earlier and saw the same pattern: high importance, low attainment. The repeat across cultures shows the gap is robust, not a fluke.
Alnahdi (2024) went further in Saudi Arabia and proved that disability-specific support predicts higher family quality of life. That turns the Malaysian descriptive finding into an action plan: give targeted help, watch satisfaction rise.
Golubović et al. (2013) warn that parents and teens with ID often disagree on quality-of-life ratings. The modest correlations M et al. saw may partly reflect this informant mismatch, not just unmet needs.
Why it matters
You already ask about problem behavior and skill deficits. Add two quick questions: “Which life areas matter most to your family?” and “How satisfied are you with each one?” If importance tops satisfaction, prioritize disability-specific supports like respite, transportation, or sibling groups. The data say these targeted services can close the gap.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: While there is a growing body of literature in the quality of life of families that include children with disabilities, the majority of research has been conducted in western countries. The present study provides an initial exploration of the quality of life of Malaysian families that include children with developmental/intellectual disabilities. Dynamics characterising Malaysian society are described as developments in social policy and service delivery that support persons with disabilities and their families. METHOD: Questionnaire data were collected using the Family Quality of Life Survey - Short Version. Members of 52 families that included one or two children with disabilities were interviewed. Their responses provided their perceptions within six dimensions of family quality of life across the nine life domains assessed. RESULTS: Findings showed a consistent pattern of relatively strong perceived 'importance' ratings in each of life domains as compared to mean ratings for other family quality of life dimensions. Some dimensions of family quality of life, in particular 'opportunities', 'initiative' and 'attainment', demonstrated particularly strong associations with each other. Overall means of satisfaction with and attainment of family quality of life as well as global evaluations of quality of life and satisfaction all demonstrated significant associations, although each of these correlations accounted for less than 50% of the common variance. CONCLUSIONS: The importance rating can be viewed as a determining factor in terms of quality of life, and it played a critical role in supporting attainment of, and satisfaction with, family quality of life, assuming opportunities, initiative and stability are adequate. The need for a broader sample including families that were not receiving services was noted. Future research questions based on the results of the current study and some of the dynamics impacting Malaysian society are also suggested.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2012 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01408.x