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Attributions of Stability, Control and Responsibility: How Parents of Children with Intellectual Disabilities View
Myrthe Jacobs1, Lisa Marks Woolfson1, Simon C Hunter1
1School of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
Insights
Parents of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) attribute problematic behaviors to factors beyond the disability itself. They consider environmental influences and controllable causes, showing a strong sense of responsibility.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Disabilities
- Parenting Studies
Background:
- Children with intellectual disabilities (ID) exhibit high rates of behavioral problems.
- Understanding parental attributions for these behaviors is crucial for effective support.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore parents' causal beliefs and attributions for problematic child behavior in children with intellectual disabilities.
- To investigate how different etiologies of intellectual disabilities influence these parental attributions.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative study involving interviews with ten parents of children with intellectual disabilities.
- Thematic analysis of interview data using NVivo software.
Main Results:
- Parents attributed problematic behavior to the child's intellectual disability, unrelated causes, and social environmental factors.
- Attributed causes varied in stability (stable/unstable) and controllability (controllable/uncontrollable).
- Parents demonstrated a significant sense of responsibility for their child's behavior.
Conclusions:
- Parental interpretations of problematic behavior in children with ID extend beyond the disability itself.
- Environmental factors and non-ID-related causes are incorporated into parental attributions.
- These broader attributions may foster more adaptive and effective parenting strategies.
Background:
Children with intellectual disabilities have high rates of behaviour problems. This study explored parents' causal beliefs and attributions for general problematic child behaviour in children with different aetiologies of intellectual disabilities.
Materials And Methods:
Ten parents of children with intellectual disabilities participated in interviews about their child's problematic behaviour.
Results:
Thematic analysis using NVivo revealed that parents viewed their child's problematic behaviour not only as caused by the child's intellectual disabilities but also by other causes unrelated to the intellectual disabilities, as well as by aspects of the social environmental context. Some causes were viewed as stable and uncontrollable and others as unstable and controllable. In addition, parents showed a strong sense of responsibility for child behaviour.
Conclusions:
Parents of children with intellectual disabilities do not solely interpret their child's problematic behaviour through the intellectual disabilities but incorporate the environment and causes and attributions that are not related to the intellectual disabilities, which may help to promote more effective parenting.
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