Parent education for adults with intellectual disability: A review and suggestions for future research

This review evaluates research regarding parent education interventions for adults with an intellectual disability (ID).

Electronic database and ancestral searches identified 13 studies published between 1994 and 2012. The results of these studies are discussed in relation to (a) participants and settings; (b) general intervention procedures, (c) programmed antecedent stimuli to occasion parent behaviour; (d) targeted behaviours; (e) programmed consequence(s) for parent behaviour; and (f) the presence of generalization and maintenance strategies.

In the majority of reviewed studies, intervention components lacked operational definitions appropriate for replication and direct observation of child outcomes were often not included as a dependent variable. Also, most interventions did not include steps to promote the generalization of skills to different stimuli or settings although the majority assessed the maintenance of targeted skills.

In consideration of these findings, several relevant areas for future research are proposed.