CEDAR, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.
J Intellect Disabil Res. 2021 May;65(5):397-404. doi: 10.1111/jir.12818. Epub 2021 Feb 25.
Parents of children with intellectual disability (ID) report comparatively lower levels of well-being than parents of children without ID. Similarly, children with ID, and to a lesser extent their siblings, are reported to show comparatively higher levels of behaviour and emotional problems. Psychological problems may be accentuated by restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, due to increased social, caring and economic stressors and reduced social support. However, existing studies have not been able to examine the impact of COVID-19 restrictions accounting for pre-COVID levels of well-being in these families. In a naturalistic design, we examined outcomes for parents, siblings and children with ID in a two-wave longitudinal study where Wave 2 data were gathered for some families before and some during COVID-19 restrictions.
Parents of children with ID who took part in a Wave 2 survey pre-lockdown (n = 294) and during/post-lockdown (n = 103) completed a number of measures about their well-being and the behaviour and emotional problems of both their child with ID and their nearest-in-age sibling. These same measures had also been completed for all families 2-3 years previously in Wave 1 of the study.
After accounting for covariates including family socio-economic circumstances, pre-lockdown and post-lockdown groups did not differ on Waves 1 to 2 change for measures of parental psychological distress, life satisfaction, the impact of caregiving on their lives or perceived positive gains; nor child or sibling internalising or externalising behaviour problems.
Findings of the current study indicate that during and shortly after the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom, well-being in families of children with an ID (as reported by parents) was at similar levels compared with prior to the lockdown period.
与没有智力障碍的儿童的父母相比，智力障碍儿童的父母报告的幸福感水平较低。同样，有智力障碍的儿童，以及在较小程度上，他们的兄弟姐妹，被报告显示出较高水平的行为和情绪问题。由于社交、照顾和经济压力增加以及社会支持减少，与 COVID-19 大流行相关的限制可能会加重心理问题。然而，现有研究未能检查在这些家庭中，考虑到 COVID-19 限制之前的幸福感水平，COVID-19 限制对父母、兄弟姐妹和有智力障碍的儿童的影响。在一项自然主义设计中，我们在一项两波纵向研究中检查了父母、兄弟姐妹和有智力障碍的儿童的结果，其中一些家庭在封锁前（n=294）和封锁期间/之后（n=103）进行了第二波调查。
参与第二波调查的有智力障碍儿童的父母（封锁前 n=294，封锁期间/之后 n=103）完成了一些关于他们的幸福感以及他们有智力障碍的孩子和年龄最接近的兄弟姐妹的行为和情绪问题的措施。这些相同的措施也在研究的第一波中完成，用于所有家庭的 2-3 年之前。
在考虑了包括家庭社会经济情况在内的协变量后，在第一波到第二波的变化中，封锁前和封锁后组在父母心理困扰、生活满意度、照顾对生活的影响或感知的积极收益的测量方面没有差异；也没有儿童或兄弟姐妹的内化或外化行为问题。
当前研究的结果表明，在英国 COVID-19 封锁期间和之后不久，有智力障碍儿童的家庭（由父母报告）的幸福感水平与封锁前时期相似。
