Mothers of young adults with intellectual disability: multiple roles, ethnicity and well-being.
A job or spouse lifts well-being in moms of adults with ID mainly by raising income, and Latina moms with low acculturation are the most vulnerable.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Eisenhower et al. (2006) asked 140 Latina, Black and White moms of young adults with intellectual disability to fill out a survey.
The survey measured who had a job, who was married and how each mom rated her own well-being.
The team then looked at whether money and cultural fit changed the link between roles and well-being.
What they found
Moms who worked or had a spouse reported better well-being than moms who did neither.
The boost came mostly from higher household income, not from the roles themselves.
Latina moms who were less acculturated felt the worst when they lacked both work and a partner.
How this fits with other research
Nickerson et al. (2015) extends these findings by showing that a short health-education class can lift diet and self-confidence in the very same group—Latina moms of adults with IDD.
Leung et al. (2011) used CBT groups with Chinese parents of younger children and also saw big drops in stress, hinting that cultural framing matters across ethnic lines.
González-Fraile et al. (2019) ran an RCT with Spanish caregivers of adults with ID and found that a psychoeducational program improved mental health even when caregiver burden stayed flat.
Together the four studies form a chain: first map who is at risk, then test low-cost programs that target the highest-risk caregivers.
Why it matters
If you serve Latino families, screen for moms who are unemployed, single and less acculturated—they are the highest-risk group.
Link them to bilingual job clubs, partner agencies or S et al.’s six-week health class.
Even small gains in income or self-care can ripple into better long-term well-being for both mom and adult child.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Two opposing perspectives--role strain and role enhancement--were considered as predictive of women's psychological and physical health. The authors examined the relation between multiple role occupancy (parenting, employment, marriage) and well-being (depression and health) among mothers of young adults with intellectual disability (ID). METHODS: Participants were 226 mothers aged 35-70 years old caring for a young adult aged 16-26 years old with moderate to severe/profound ID. Mothers were of either Latino ethnicity (n=117) or Anglo (n=109). Mothers' ethnicity and degree of acculturation and young adults' adaptive behaviour and behaviour problems were examined as potential moderators. RESULTS: Mothers who were employed, married, or both reported better well-being than mothers who were both unemployed and unmarried, especially when their offspring had relatively higher adaptive functioning. This relationship between role occupancy and well-being was fully mediated by socio-economic status (SES) factors. Results did not suggest a role enhancement effect, but instead indicated a role shortage effect; unemployed, unmarried mothers experienced markedly poor well-being, while all other mothers experienced comparable well-being. Well-being scores were higher for Anglo than for Latino mothers; this relationship was entirely accounted for by SES. In Latina mothers, the relation between role occupancy and well-being was moderated by degree of acculturation. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that multiple roles benefit mothers of young adults with ID primarily through their impact on socio-economic resources. For more acculturated Latina mothers, occupying more roles predicted better well-being even after controlling for SES. Latina mothers who were unemployed and unmarried had lower SES, and this group emerged as at particular risk. The latter group may benefit most from respite assistance and other interventions aimed at addressing their physical and mental health.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2006 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2006.00913.x