Resilience in Familial Caregivers of Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Meta-analysis.
Social support is the strongest lever for building caregiver resilience in families of children with developmental disabilities.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team pooled many small studies on caregiver resilience. They looked only at families raising children with developmental disabilities.
They ran a meta-analysis to see which factors most often link to stronger caregiver resilience.
What they found
Social support showed the clearest tie to caregiver resilience. The link was small to medium in size.
Other helpful factors included coping skills and positive thinking.
How this fits with other research
Gardiner et al. (2012) asked researchers to stop focusing only on stress and start measuring resilience. The new meta answers that call by showing which factors matter most.
Lifshitz et al. (2014) found the same social-support boost in parents of children with autism. They also saw lower morning cortisol, hinting that resilience may protect health.
Widyawati et al. (2021) took the idea further. They showed that when parents grow more resilient, they use more labeled praise, and their children’s quality of life rises.
Why it matters
You can now tell funders and families that boosting social support is the top evidence-based way to strengthen caregiver resilience. Add peer groups, respite nights, or online parent circles to your behavior plans. Watch stress drop and cooperation rise.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate factors associated with resilience in familial caregivers of children with developmental disabilities. The protocol was registered in the PROSPERO database, with the registration number CRD42018105180. Several electronic databases were searched for studies. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed on 26 selected studies that associated resilience to an array of other variables (i.e., psychological distress, social support, coping, perceived health, life satisfaction). Overall, the significant pooled effect sizes were small to medium, ranging from r = 0.291 for coping to r = 0.442 for social support. Although the literature on the topic has improved, there is a lot of study heterogeneity and the need for focusing on male caregivers becomes evident.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2020 · doi:10.1007/s10803-020-04473-9