Associations of social support and hardiness with mental health among mothers of adult children with intellectual disability.
Where an adult with ID lives does not change mom’s mental health; building her hardiness and social support does.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked: Does it matter for a mom’s mental health if her adult child with intellectual disability still lives at home or in a community placement?
They measured stress, hardiness, social support, and mental-health scores in mothers of adults with ID. Then they compared moms whose children lived at home versus those in out-of-home placements.
What they found
Mothers’ mental-health scores looked the same no matter where the adult child lived. Stress, hardiness, and support each mattered on its own, but placement status did not.
How this fits with other research
Bigby et al. (2009) and Saunders et al. (2005) show that how moms think—locus of control, satisfaction, self-esteem—drives parenting stress. Reid et al. (2005) adds that inner traits like hardiness and outside help like social support shape mental health more than living arrangements.
Lancioni et al. (2006) flips the lens: poverty, not caregiving, explains most well-being gaps. Together these papers say: target mom-level factors (cognitions, hardiness, support) and system-level factors (money, services) before worrying about where the adult child sleeps.
B-Oliver et al. (2002) gave families home-care services and saw caregiver mental health improve. That trial supports the new finding: give support, boost mom; location is secondary.
Why it matters
You can stop assuming a community placement will automatically lower mom’s distress. Instead, run a quick hardiness-and-support check: Does she have friends to call? Does she see herself as capable? Add parent-to-parent groups, mindfulness classes, or respite vouchers. These moves are cheaper, faster, and more powerful than pushing for out-of-home placement when the family isn’t ready.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add two questions to your caregiver intake: 'Name two people you can ask for help this week' and 'On a scale of 1-5, how confident do you feel handling daily crises?' Use answers to plan support, not placement talks.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The study was conducted with mothers of adult children with developmental disabilities and had two aims: (1) to examine the mental health, resources and stress among mothers who keep their adult child at home vs. those who choose placement in a community arrangement; and (2) to assess the associations of mothers' resources and stress with mental health. METHOD: A sample of 100 mothers (mean age 60.67 years) of adult children with intellectual disability, 50% of whom had been placed in a community arrangement were asked to complete questionnaires measuring mental health, stress, hardiness and social support. RESULTS: The comparisons between mothers who had placed their adult child in a community arrangement and those who had kept their child at home showed no significant differences for most indicators. Mental health, stress, hardiness and social support were highly intercorrelated, as expected, and hierarchical regression analyses indicated independent effects of stress, hardiness and out-of-home placement on mental health. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that strengthening personal and social resources of mothers of adult children with developmental disabilities may be beneficial for their mental health.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2005 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2005.00662.x