A Study
of Parents with Learning Difficulties
(Grantholders:
Tim Booth and Wendy Booth; Funded by The Nuffield Foundation)
Research Aims
- To explore the
experience of parenthood by mothers and fathers with learning
difficulties.
- To investigate
the problems encountered by parents with learning difficulties
and any shortcomings in the support provided to them.
- To frame a set
of 'good practice' principles, grounded on parents' perceptions
of their own needs, for the guidance of service providers and
practitioners in the health and social services.
The Research Background
A literature scan
using online and manual databases revealed no research that gave
pride of place to the views, feelings and experiences of parents
with learning difficulties or which accorded them the status
of actors in the drama of their own lives.
This project set
out to rectify some of these shortcomings by giving attention
primarily to the parents, by listening to what they had to say
about the rewards and demands of parenthood, and by using the
life story approach as an antidote to accounts in which the parents
as people make no appearance.
Study Design and
Method
The study followed
a two-stage design:
Stage 1 comprised unstructured
interviews with 20 parents or sets of parents in different circumstances
aimed at providing comparable information on their experiences
of parenthood from becoming pregnant, through pregnancy, confinement
and labour, to baby care, child-rearing and being a mother/father.
A small number (7)
of willing parents were chosen from this group to go forward
into Stage 2.
Stage 2 involved the compilation
over twelve months or more of in-depth, narrative accounts of
people's lives as parents.
Contact with the
families was extensive: 126 interviews were conducted as part
of the study.
The fieldwork began
in April 1991 and was completed in December 1992.
A full account of
the study is given in Parenting
Under Pressure
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