Experiencing motherhood and fatherhood with learning difficulties in Austria: The need for self‐determined support

Abstract

Accessible summary Some parents with learning difficulties are supported by child welfare in raising their child. Many mothers and fathers with learning difficulties have their child removed. This paper is the first published research about being a mother and being father with learning difficulties in Austria. There is not enough good quality support for parents with learning difficulties in Austria. We interviewed six mothers and five fathers with learning difficulties and asked them about who supports them and how. We also asked them what it means to them to be a mother or a father. Most parents said that they get the wrong support and are being checked on by child welfare. One mother said that she gets very helpful support. Being a mother with learning difficulties is different to being a father with learning difficulties. Mothers who have lived with their child feel that they are the main caregivers, but fathers sometimes feel excluded from their child's life. AbstractBackgroundMany parents with learning difficulties face high rates of child welfare intervention and child removal. In contrast to other high‐income countries, there has not been any published research on the lives of mothers and fathers with learning difficulties from an Austrian perspective. After presenting an insight into the international literature and the Austrian context, original empirical findings relevant to providing professional support for parents with learning difficulties are introduced.MethodAs part of a larger qualitative study, ten individual parents with learning difficulties (six mothers and four fathers) were interviewed to gain insight into their experience of motherhood and fatherhood. During the interviews, participants were asked to visualise their social networks through network maps that were then included into analyses. The current paper primarily engages with parents’ experience of professional practice based on a hermeneutic analysis of latent and manifest meanings.FindingsThe study results reinforce the relevance of social networks, including (a lack of) professional parenting support, and gendered parental self‐understandings in relation to barriers for parents with learning difficulties in Austria. Parents often experienced surveillance from child welfare professionals and referred to “being checked on” as well as receiving “the wrong support”. Only one study participant experienced the (flexible and self‐determined) support provided to her family as helpful. Mothers and fathers with learning difficulties face, at times, quite different challenges in the parenting role. The findings highlight a maternal self‐understanding as being primarily responsible for their child, while fathers often felt excluded from their child's life.ConclusionsSupport services need to acknowledge the relevance of gendered parenting roles and intersections of multidimensional disadvantages. The parenting support currently available to mothers and fathers with learning difficulties (if available at all) needs radical improvement and nationwide support structures need to be installed in collaboration with families.