Parental Expectations for Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Systematic Scoping Review

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Introduction: Evidence from the general parenting literature and emerging evidence from studies of parents of children with developmental disabilities, suggests that parental expectations positively influence child outcomes (Bask et al., 2014; Bush et al., 2018). However, unlike the general parenting literature, little is known about nature and scope of parent expectations for children with developmental disabilities and the factors influencing these expectations. This study used a systematic scoping review to examine the nature of, and factors predicting parental expectations among families of children with five of the most common developmental disabilities (i.e., autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disabilities, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, down syndrome, and cerebral palsy).
Method: Five databases—PSYCInfo, PUBMED, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOHOST, and ERIC—were searched using keywords commonly used in the parental expectations literature. The initial search yielded a total of 1,728 records which were paired down to 1,469 after duplicates were removed. All records were then subjected to a double screening through Abstrackr (Byron et al., 2012), that yielded 33 “good fit”, 74 “maybe” and 1,457 “poor fit” records, respectively. “Good fit” and “maybe” records were subjected to a full review based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria (See table 1 for details of the keywords and eligibility criteria). Additional articles were also identified through hand searches of the reference sections associated with selected articles. A total of fifty-two articles were identified as eligible for inclusion.
Results: Findings revealed that parental expectations for children with developmental disabilities extended beyond the domains examined in the general parenting literature. In addition to expectations for educational outcomes, they include expectations for social, vocational, and functional outcomes (Chiang et al., 2012; Kirby, et al., 2016). Evidence from studies examining predictors of parental expectations also show that at the child-level, factors such as the child’s intellectual ability, symptom severity, and child age are predictive of parental expectations (Kirby, 2016). However, other factors such as type of onset (i.e., congenital, or later onset), for children with autism for instance, may not be predictive parental expectations. Moreover, parent-level factors such as parental self-efficacy (Arellano et al., 2017) and contextual factors such as the availability of resources, and cultural/societal norms are also predictive of parents’ expectations for their children with developmental disabilities (Ivey, 2004, Poon et al., 2013).
Discussion: This study is the first to consolidate emerging evidence around parental expectations for child with developmental disabilities. The findings highlight the breadth of the construct in comparison to evidence from the general parenting literature that focuses almost entirely on parents’ educational expectations (e.g., Bask et al., 2014). However, there appears to little consensus on the parameters of these dimensions and the methods of assessing them. Consistent with ecological models, the identified predictors of parental expectations also reveal how different structural and individual factors can shape the development of these expectations and potentially influence child outcomes (Bronfenbrenner and Ceci, 2004). Findings have implications for measurement development and intervention efforts aimed at enhancing the quality of life of children with developmental disabilities.

Author

• Melissa Washington-Nortey, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Presenting Author