GRIEVING RELATED TO DEVELOPMENT - A PRELIMINARY COMPARISON OF 3 AGE COHORTS OF PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY

It is argued that a child with intellectual disability represents an o ngoing source of loss and grief for parents. A developmental framework was employed to compare three age cohorts of parents. Grief was opera tionalized within the affective, behavioural and cognitive domains. Me asures of intrusive thoughts, avoidance behaviours, current emotional distress over reminders of time of diagnosis of disability, and intens ity of wishing for what might have been were used, collectively, to re flect the parents' grief reactions. As hypothesized, the results indic ate no significant age-related differences in the responses of 58 pare nt dyads but significant gender-relatd differences. Mothers scored hig her than fathers on all measures. However, on the Wishing Scale, there were no significant differences between fathers and mothers. It is co ncluded that grieving, as defined, is an ongoing feature of rearing a child with intellectual disability and is more intense for mothers tha n fathers. Results are discussed within the implications for research and practice, with particular reference to the merit of programmes and services which empower parents and strengthen bonds of partnership be tween parents and professionals.