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The Impact of Demographic Characteristics and the Positive Perceptions of Parents on Quality of Life in Families with a Member with Intellectual Disability

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Abstract

Families with children and adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) have positive perceptions that may raise levels of FQoL. However, little is known about what happens to these positive perceptions and FQoL when the family members with ID reach adulthood. Our main objective was to analyze the predictors of FQoL, incorporating demographic variables and parents’ positive perceptions before and after the family member with ID turns 18. A sample of 861 families who had a family member with ID between 1 and 70 years old completed both the Positive Contributions Scale (PCS) in order to measure their positive perceptions and the Spanish family quality of life scale for under 18-years-old or over 18-years-old in order to assess FQoL. Firstly, a bivariate analysis was conducted to study the effect of demographic variables and PCS scores on FQoL scores. Secondly, variables whose effect was found to be statistically significant in the bivariate analysis were included in a multiple linear regression model to predict FQoL scores. Results indicated that families with higher levels of positive perceptions reported higher levels of FQoL. The predictive analysis of FQoL showed that in both groups of families with a member with ID younger or older than 18 years of age, there was a significant effect from positive perceptions on the reported levels of FQoL, even when the effect of the demographic variables included in the model was eliminated. The present results provide further evidence of the importance of a positive approach toward families with a family member who have ID, reinforcing and broadening the positive perceptions in order to promote their FQoL. The practical implications of these findings are discussed, along with directions for future research.

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Acknowledgments

This research is funded by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science under the National I&D&I (PSI2015-63627-R): Parenting and child’s normal development and Intellectual disability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Pg. De la Vall d’Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Spain

    Fina Ferrer & Rosa Vilaseca

  2. Department of Psychobiology and Methodology of the Behavioral Sciences, University of Malaga, Av. Cervantes 2, 29071, Malaga, Spain

    Rosa Maria Bersabé

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  1. Fina Ferrer
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  2. Rosa Vilaseca
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  3. Rosa Maria Bersabé
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Correspondence to Fina Ferrer.

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Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Network of Ethics Committees in Universities and Public Research Centres in Spain. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Ferrer, F., Vilaseca, R. & Bersabé, R.M. The Impact of Demographic Characteristics and the Positive Perceptions of Parents on Quality of Life in Families with a Member with Intellectual Disability. J Dev Phys Disabil 28, 871–888 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-016-9515-z

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