RESEARCH UNDERWAY
Risk status and resilience in families with parents with intellectual disability: Parents and children’s experiences, policy and public discourse.
Project team
Prof Gwynnyth Llewellyn
Dr Rachel Mayes
Gabrielle Hindmarsh
Dr Vikki Fraser
Overview
Children of parents with intellectual disability are at greater risk of growing up with someone other than their parents than any other group in the community. International studies report up to one in three of these children will be removed from their parents’ care. Little is known about the effects this implied or real threat of removal has on the children or their parents and how this risk status is constructed in policy and public discourse.
The overall aim of this project is to identify:
- Factors that contribute to child resilience from the children’s perspective;
- Parental experiences in relation to the real or implied threat of child removal or risk of child removal;
- The construction in public discourse and policy of the at risk status and vulnerability of these children and their parents.
Approach
This project comprised of three related studies utilises a qualitative design to explore children’s perspective, parental experiences in the social and cultural context of policy and public discourse.
Study 1 will address: What contributes to child vulnerability and resilience, from the children’s perspective?
Study 2 will address: What are the parents’ perceptions of daily family life in the context of three conditions; the implied threat of child removal; the real threat of child removal; and child removal?
Study 3 will address: How and to what extent are children of parents with intellectual disability and their parents portrayed in the public domain?
Anticipated outcomes
Findings will guide the design of a larger follow up study.