Positive parenting has a great effect on children with developmental disabilities.  McKay School of Education faculty Tina Dyches, Tim Smith, and Byran Korth published “Positive parenting of children with developmental disabilities: A meta-analysis” in the number one journal in Special Education, Research in Developmental Disabilities.

Several years ago, the McKay School of Education offered funding for qualified research conducted through collaborative efforts.  A multidisciplinary team put their heads together to look at unanswered questions regarding parenting and children with disabilities.  The team of authors has backgrounds in nursing, family life, counseling psychology, and special education.  “When you put all of our backgrounds and knowledge together, the result can be much stronger than from authors from a single discipline,” Dyches said.

The authors used their diverse backgrounds to investigate existing literature regarding parenting styles and found that while there was much research established for typically-developing children, there were very few publications regarding associations between parenting styles and children with developmental disabilities. This became the focus of their research.

The publication is a meta-analysis.  A meta-analysis investigates existing research and using specialized statistical analyses, draws conclusions from that body of literature.   The authors studied 14 different articles, which included over 576 participants in studies conducted to understand the effects of positive parenting on children with developmental disabilities like autism or cerebral palsy.  “There were quite a few studies conducted on children with Down syndrome, but there was not much published about other disabilities,” Dyches said.

The data showed a positive association between parenting and child outcomes.  When there is positive parenting, there is a beneficial effect on the social and developmental outcomes of children.  They also found that the greater the maturity level of the parent, the greater effect they had on a child’s life.  “The results provide support for efforts to evaluate and promote effective parenting skills when providing services for young children with disabilities,” as explained in the publication.

To find out more information and read the publication visit http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0891422212001631.

August 21, 2012