COVID-19 impact on psychological outcomes of parents, siblings and children with intellectual disability: longitudinal before and during lockdown design.
UK families of children with ID held steady in parent well-being and child behavior through lockdown.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers tracked UK families who have a child with intellectual disability.
They compared parent stress and child behavior before lockdown and again during lockdown.
The team used the same surveys at both time points so scores could be lined up.
What they found
Parents did not report a jump in stress or depression after lockdown began.
Children’s behavior problems also stayed flat, not worse.
In short, the pandemic rules did not add extra strain beyond normal life.
How this fits with other research
Eto et al. (1992) showed adults with ID had more social contact in hostels than in hospitals.
That older paper looked at place of living; the new one looks at time—lockdown versus normal days.
Both agree that daily context matters, yet neither found doom-and-gloom outcomes when supports stayed in place.
Bigby et al. (2014) list clear signs of a good group home, such as staff offering choices.
Those quality signs may explain why Ptomey et al. (2021) saw stable scores: families still gave choices and routines even at home.
Why it matters
You can reassure families that lockdown-like disruption may not automatically harm their child with ID.
Keep checking parent stress with brief surveys; the data say scores likely hold steady if you keep supports running.
Use this evidence to defend continued respite or tele-health when future crises hit.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Parents of children with intellectual disability (ID) report comparatively lower levels of well-being than parents of children without ID. Similarly, children with ID, and to a lesser extent their siblings, are reported to show comparatively higher levels of behaviour and emotional problems. Psychological problems may be accentuated by restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, due to increased social, caring and economic stressors and reduced social support. However, existing studies have not been able to examine the impact of COVID-19 restrictions accounting for pre-COVID levels of well-being in these families. In a naturalistic design, we examined outcomes for parents, siblings and children with ID in a two-wave longitudinal study where Wave 2 data were gathered for some families before and some during COVID-19 restrictions. METHODS: Parents of children with ID who took part in a Wave 2 survey pre-lockdown (n = 294) and during/post-lockdown (n = 103) completed a number of measures about their well-being and the behaviour and emotional problems of both their child with ID and their nearest-in-age sibling. These same measures had also been completed for all families 2-3 years previously in Wave 1 of the study. RESULTS: After accounting for covariates including family socio-economic circumstances, pre-lockdown and post-lockdown groups did not differ on Waves 1 to 2 change for measures of parental psychological distress, life satisfaction, the impact of caregiving on their lives or perceived positive gains; nor child or sibling internalising or externalising behaviour problems. CONCLUSIONS: Findings of the current study indicate that during and shortly after the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom, well-being in families of children with an ID (as reported by parents) was at similar levels compared with prior to the lockdown period.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2021 · doi:10.1111/jir.12818