This report uses meta-analytic methods to reexamine a body of research literature on comparative levels of divorce and marital satisfaction/discord in parents of children with and without developmental disabilities in light of new assumptions about variability in family adjustment, including successful family adaptation and longterm resilience. A historical review of the literature on the impacts of children with disability on their family describes longstanding negative assumptions, in keeping with a view of disability as inevitably detrimental to couples and other family members. This meta-analysis finds a much smaller effect on parents' marital relationships than would be expected under older assumptions about disability and family.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.