Appraised significance of intellectual disability for parents of children in three age cohorts: exploring the stress process.

The conceptualization of stress as a process involving stressors, mediators and manifestations of stress has opened up a way of more systematically investigating the impact of perceptions on stress experienced by parents of children with intellectual disabilities. Results obtained at the end of the first part of a two-stage panel design study indicate that appraised significance perceptions of parents are potentially exacerbating mediators of parental stress. Findings of a multiple regression analysis were interpreted as being consistent with the proposition that the parent-appraised significance of the child's disability for their parental role becomes increasingly salient as an exacerbating mediator of parental stress during the later childhood to early adolescent years. An attempt will be made to test this proposition when the children in the 3-5 year old cohort moves into the 10-12 year-old age category.