2016 Gatlinburg Conference Poster
PS-6
Title: Measuring the Expectations and Fears Parents Have for Their Children with Down Syndrome
Authors: B. Allyson Phillips, Frances A. Conners, Mary Elizabeth Curtner-Smith
Introduction: The current study developed two questionnaires to examine parental expectations and fears in mothers of
children with Down syndrome (DS). Little work has examined parenting children with DS, and measures to assess aspects related
to parenting children with DS are limited. Parental expectations and fears are constructs that might influence parenting
practices, especially parents of children with intellectual disability. In general, today's society places lower expectations on
children with disabilities, and if parents adopt these lower expectations, they may alter how they parent and prepare their child
for adulthood (Ferguson & Asch, 1989; Woolfson, 2004). Additionally, individuals with DS have cognitive and sometimes physical
deficits that might make parents fearful of negative evaluation and/or physical harm. These fears might result in more
overprotective parenting behaviors (Green et al., 2013). This study provides preliminary data for the development of the
Parental Expectations Questionnaire (PEQ) and Parental Fears Questionnaire (PFQ).
Methods: The sample was comprised of 35 mothers of children with DS (mean child age = 9.06 years, SD = 2.32). The mothers
completed four parent-report questionnaires: a Background Questionnaire, the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire,
the PEQ, and the PFQ. The PEQ has three domains--school and work, friends and family, and independent living. The PFQ also
has three domains--fear of negative child evaluations, fear of physical harm to child, and overprotective parenting behavior.
Results: To gain a preliminary understanding of the reliability and validity of the PEQ and PFQ, we examined five aspects of the
data: (1) distribution of scores, (2) Cronbach's alpha reliabilities, (3) correlations with parenting dimensions, (4) correlations
between scale domains, and (5) cross-sectional developmental trajectories. For both questionnaires, the distribution of scores
was close to normal for the overall score and the individual domains. For the PEQ, Cronbach's alpha was .96 for the entire
measure and ranged from .83 to .95 for the three domains. For the PFQ, Cronbach's alpha was .85 for the entire measure and
ranged from .52 to .87 for the three domains. As expected, the PEQ positively correlated with the positive parenting dimension
of structure (r = .44, p = .016), and the PFQ positively correlated with the negative parenting dimensions of rejection (r = -.35, p =
.041) and coercion (r = .44, p = .008). Intercorrelations were high for the three domains of the PEQ (p < .001 for all) and PFQ (p
ranges from <.001 to 069). Finally, cross-sectional developmental trajectories were created to assess the ability of child
chronological age (CA) to predict parental expectations and parental fears. Child CA was marginally significant at predicting
parental expectations, F(1, 33) = 3.48, p = .071, with a decline in parental expectations occurring as children got older. This same
pattern was true for each of the three PEQ domains. However, child CA was not significant at predicting parental fears for the
total score or individual domains.
Discussion: The preliminary results for the PEQ suggest that it is a reliable measure for assessing parental expectations in
mothers of children with DS. Further, the decline in expectations as children get older has interesting implications. It is possible
that as parents become more aware of a child's cognitive/physical limitations as the child gets older, their expectations decrease.
This decrease in expectations might place the expectations too low for the child or it might establish more practical expectations.
The preliminary results for the PFQ do not show as strong a reliability, especially for the individual domains. For both measures,
future research is needed with a larger sample size to determine reliability and conduct a factor analysis of the domains.
References/Citations:
• Fergerson, P., & Asch, A. (1989). Lessons from life: Personal and parental perspectives on school, childhood and
disability. In D. Biklen, D. Ferguson, & A. Ford (Eds.), Schooling and Disability (pp. 108-140). Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
• Woolfson, L. (2004). Family wellbeing and disabled children: A psychosocial model of disability-related child behavior
problems. British Journal of Health Psychology, 9, 1-13.