Mapping People’s Views Regarding Childbearing Among People with Learning Difficulties

Abstract

The study mapped French people’s views regarding childbearing among persons with learning difficulties. Participants were members of the community aged 18–84. Some of them had a solid grounding in law or had medical training or were psychologists or remedial education workers. They were presented with 48 realistic stories that were composed according to a four-factor within-subject design: level of learning difficulty (light vs. severe) × level of help to be expected from the family (stable, well-to-do family vs. single-parent family with socio-economic problems) × stability of the relationship (stable, long-term relationship, stable short-term relationship or episodic relationship) × partner (no learning difficulties vs. light difficulties) × parents’ attitude (did not oppose their daughter’s project vs. unfavourable). Several additional stories were added to the main design, in which etiology was genetic (Down’s syndrome). Participants were asked to judge the “reasonableness” of both partners’ decision in each case. Through cluster analysis, four qualitatively different positions were found. They were called Never Reasonable (34 % of the sample, mostly lawyers and self-identified rightists), Depends on Circumstances (50 %, mostly male participants), Depends on Stability of Relationship (9 %), and Quite Reasonable (8 %, mostly participants younger than 26).