An Exploration of Parental Identity and Parents’ Experiences of Parenting a Child with an Intellectual Disability

Systematic literature review

A thematic synthesis was undertaken to explore how parents construct their parental identity in response to their child receiving a diagnosis of an intellectual disability. Five databases were systematically searched, and fifteen studies were selected for review. Three analytic themes were generated: Normalcy-Abnormalcy, where parents internalise, or resist dominant discourses that position their parenthood outside the ‘norm’; Solely Responsible, where restricted support and sociocultural expectations caused parents identities to become enmeshed with their parental roles; Dis/abled Parent, where sociocultural expectations and their beliefs caused parents to define themselves as ‘competent’ or ‘incompetent’. These findings suggest there is a clinical need for a conceptual shift in how professionals and services understand and discuss disability and understand how ableist discourses marginalise parents and impact their identity.

Empirical research project

The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) has not been used with parents of children with an intellectual disability. Parents are often marginalised by neoliberalableist discourses that restrict their access to support and pathologise their distress. The study used the PTMF to explore parents’ experiences of supporting their child with an ID. Six parents participated in multiple semi-structured interviews. Eighteen interviews were analysed using a Template Analysis. The top-level themes reflected the five interrelated domains of the PTMF; Power, what has happened to parents; Threat, or threats to parents’ core needs; Meaning, or parents’ understandings of their experiences; threat responses, the ways parents respond; Strengths and power resources, or the access parents have to resources that help them survive. This highlighted the need for services to move away from the medicalisation of parents suffering, but it is an understandable response to what is happening in their lives.