Paid employment of mothers and fathers of an adult child with multiple disabilities

Abstract

Paid employment is increasingly undertaken by mothers as their children age, with the majority of women being in employment by the time their offspring are adult. Opportunities to engage in employment appear to be reduced for mothers of children with disabilities; however, little is known about the employment of mothers or fathers of adults with disabilities. Data were collected regarding the employment decisions of parents of a young adult with multiple disabilities and contrasted with those of parents whose children were all developing normally. Twenty-five mothers and 12 fathers of a young adult with multiple disabilities were interviewed, as were 25 comparison mothers and 19 comparison fathers. Data collected included hours of work, reasons for employment status, attitudes towards work and child care, and psychological well-being. Clear differences were found between the two groups. Mothers and fathers of a child with multiple disabilities showed different engagement patterns with the paid workforce from comparison parents. Hours of work for fathers of a young adult with multiple disabilities showed a bi-modal distribution, with some fathers working fewer hours than usual and others working very long hours. For mothers in both groups, the number of hours in paid employment was negatively associated with reports of psychological problems. Increased attention needs to be given to the employment opportunities of parents of children with disabilities since employment appears to play a protective role for mothers, in particular. Services provided to adults with disabilities will need to change if parents are to have the same life chances as parents without adult offspring with a disability.

Reliability and validity of the COPE Index among caregivers of disabled people

“…However, combining work and family care is not necessarily strenuous, since working caregivers may have higher quality of life (Oldenkamp et al, 2014) or fewer psychological problems (Einam & Cuskelly, 2002). It is important to evaluate the financial difficulties working-age caregivers at separately so as not to underestimate or ignore possible difficulties.…”

Working and Caring for a Child with Chronic Illness: Challenges in Maintaining Employment

“…The few studies that have tackled this area of family life have shown that, for parents who are working, the stressors involved in caring for a child with chronic illness are exacerbated (Cuskelly et al 1998;Thyen et al 1999;Einam and Cuskelly 2002). Various challenges confronting these parents have been identified with the most common being locating appropriate and affordable child care.…”

“…The main limitations of the existing studies have been the lack of focus on parents who are working full time as most have either not stressed this criteria (Cuskelly et al 1998;Thyen et al 1999;Einam and Cuskelly 2002;Hedov et al 2002;Leiter et al 2004) or have lacked clarity as to whether the parents are working full time or part time (Lewis et al 2000). Other limitations have been: the focus on specific chronic conditions only (Freedman et al 1995;Shearn and Todd 2000) and the lack of any generalizable findings.…”

Exigences professionnelles et familiales, conflits interrôles et détresse psychologique des mères d'enfants ayant une déficience intellectuelle /

“…Les mères qui occupent un emploi rémunéré rencontreraient de grandes difficultés reliées à la conciliation de leurs obligations familiales et professionnelles (Einam & Cuskelly, 2002;Lewis, et al, 2000a;Shearn & Todd, 2000). Cependant, les sources de stress provenant de la famille, qui peuvent accroître le niveau de conflits interrôles, ont été examinées principalement chez des parents d'enfants d'âge préscolaire (Lewis et al, 2000a).…”

“…De plus, la flexibilité de l'horaire de travail est associée à des niveaux moindres de conflits travail-famille (Voydanoff, 2002 (Einam & Cuskelly, 2002).…”