Influence of child diagnosis on family and parental functioning: Down syndrome versus other disabilities

Although children with Down syndrome are popularly conceived of as having easy temperaments and agreeable personalities, conflicting reports exist as to whether they are easier to rear than are children with other developmental disabilities. To compensate for possibly biased samples in earlier studies, we employed three methodological strategies, including case-by-case matching of families raising children with Down syndrome and families raising children with other types of developmental disabilities. Results showed no differences between matched groups on various measures of functioning, a finding replicated with multiple regression techniques. However, in unmatched samples families of children with Down syndrome showed better functioning. Thus, previous research demonstrating better adjustment for families rearing children with Down syndrome should be re-examined for sampling biases.