Abstract
The aim of the study was to examine the relation between demographic variables, parental characteristics, and cognitive, language and motor skills development in children with intellectual disabilities (ID). A sample of 89 children with ID, aged 20–47 months, completed the Bayley Scales of Infant Development to measure cognitive, motor, and linguistic development. Parents were administered questionnaires about demographic information and parental anxiety, depression, parental stress, conjugality and familial functioning. Parenting behaviors (affection, responsiveness, encouragement, and teaching) were observed using the Spanish version of PICCOLO (Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes). A bivariate analysis showed that cognitive development in infants was significantly related to the mother’s and father’s responsiveness, and to the father’s teaching scores. Infant language development was related to a variety of maternal factors (educational level, anxiety, depression, maternal responsiveness) and to the father’s teaching scores. None of the factors were statistically related to child motor development. A multivariate regression analysis indicated that children’s cognitive development can be predicted by a linear combination of maternal responsiveness and paternal teaching scores. Language development can be predicted by a linear combination of maternal anxiety and responsiveness, and paternal teaching scores. The present study provides evidence of the importance of paternal involvement for cognitive and language development in children with intellectual disabilities, and contributes to the increasing literature about fathering. Gaining knowledge about parental contributions to children’s development is relevant for improving positive parenting in early intervention programs.
Highlights
The influence of family context on children’s development has received increasing attention in recent years (Cabrera et al, 2011; Velasco et al, 2014; Chiang et al, 2015; Barreto et al, 2017), but understanding and explaining how this effect is exerted is a complex task.In children with intellectual disability (ID), the slower rate of development affects their learning and their interaction and communication with others
Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Barcelona’s Bioethics Commission (CBUB), in accordance with the International Ethical Guidelines for Health-related Research involving Humans prepared by the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), and the WMA Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research involving Human Subjects
The relationship between each of the factors included in the sociodemographic questionnaire and children’s developmental outcomes (BSID-III percentile scores) was analyzed
Summary
The influence of family context on children’s development has received increasing attention in recent years (Cabrera et al, 2011; Velasco et al, 2014; Chiang et al, 2015; Barreto et al, 2017), but understanding and explaining how this effect is exerted is a complex task. Both the child and the parents affect each other in reciprocal ways and the results of this interaction pave the way for subsequent development (Warren and Walker, 2005) More research in this area is clearly needed, especially because the results could be used to design strategies for families with children with IDs. Our study is clearly exploratory in nature, aiming to examine the relation between family-related demographic variables (e.g., parents’ educational level, family income, and so on), parental factors, and cognitive, linguistic and motor development in young children with IDs. Under “parental factors” we include both the parents’ and family’s wellbeing (anxiety, depression, parental stress, conjugality, family functioning) and parenting, defined in terms of affection, responsiveness, encouragement, and teaching
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