Parents' psychological, social and financial outcomes as related to the transition of their offspring with ID from adolescence to adulthood

Family Caregiver Adaptation during the Transition to Adulthood of Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities: A Scoping Review

During the transition to adulthood, individuals diagnosed with intellectual disability (ID) and their family caregivers have unique experiences. This scoping review studies the sources of the family caregiver's objective burden, support, coping mechanisms, positive caregiving, and quality of life to understand the caregiver's adaptation process when the individual with ID transits to adulthood, according to Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Scoping Review methodology guidelines. The inclusion criteria included studies of family caregivers of any age who provide unpaid care and live with individuals diagnosed with ID who are transitioning to adulthood. Of 2875 articles identified, 12 published studies were included. The main themes included caregivers reporting dissatisfaction with the available adult services and exhaustion from being a caregiver. Overall, a vicious cycle of likely increased demands during the transition, with caregivers not being prepared to cope with these demands while concurrently being dissatisfied with the adult services system, leads the caregivers to develop a pervasive sense of helplessness. Future studies would benefit from recruiting caregivers from sources other than adult-only service centres and using qualitative (to identify the broad aspects of the key factors) and quantitative (to identify the significant differences between the key factors) methodologies.

Psychological flexibility of parents of children with disabilities: A systematic literature review

PURPOSE

Psychological flexibility, a popular concept in clinical psychology, is still evolving in the context of studying parents of children with disabilities. This study systematically reviewed the literature on the psychological flexibility of parents of children with disabilities to identify contributions of the literature and make recommendations for practice and future study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines and identified studies on the psychological flexibility of parents of children with disabilities using five electronic databases: PsychNet, PubMed, ERIC, Social Services Abstracts, and EBSCO. Twenty-six articles met the criteria and were included. A thematic analysis was conducted to extract major themes.

RESULTS

Three major themes emerged from the data: (1) psychological flexibility is associated with various aspects of mental health; (2) psychological flexibility is associated with parental functioning in caring for children with a disability; (3) acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) based interventions effectively enhance the psychological flexibility of parents of children with disabilities.

CONCLUSIONS

The study concludes that psychological flexibility is extremely relevant to disability studies and should be further explored in relation to different parental well-being and functioning aspects. Professionals are encouraged to incorporate principles of acceptance and commitment therapy into their work with parents of children with disabilities.

Transitions Theatre: Creating a Research-Based Reader's Theatre With Disabled Youth and Their Families

Transition to adult life can be a challenging time for disabled youth and their families. This article describes the collaborative creation of Transitions Theatre, a research-based reader's theatre activity based on narrative interviews with eight disabled youth (aged 17-22) and seven parents. Analysis of these interviews generated two opposing yet interrelated themes. On one hand, youth and families felt lost in transition facing multiple gaps in healthcare, financial support, education, and opportunities for social participation after having "aged out" of the pediatric system. On the other hand, they started cripping "normal" adulthood to envision more inclusive futures wherein disabilities are understood as integral to society. These two themes were transformed into two reader's theatre scripts, one featuring a youth, the other featuring a parent. Seven youth and four parents (six of them were original interview participants) then participated in a Transitions Theatre workshop to read the scripts together and discuss the authenticity and relatability of the scripts. Participant feedback suggested that the reader's theatre method was effective in sharing findings with research participants and stimulating a critical dialogue on how to (re)imagine transition to adulthood. We discuss the importance of implementing inclusive design strategies to make reader's theatre accessible to participants with diverse abilities and preferences.