Mothers with Intellectual Disabilities Who Do or Do Not Have Custody of Their Children

Many parents with intellectual disabilities (ID) lose custody of their children due to real or perceived parenting inadequacies. It is not clear how parents with ID who keep their children differ from parents who lose their children. In this study, 30 mothers with an intellectual disability who still had custody of all their children were compared to 17 mothers whose children were placed in care. Mothers who still had custody of their children were more involved in their community, were more satisfied with the services they received, had higher incomes, and younger children than mothers who had lost their children. No significant differences were found concerning the behaviour of their children, the mothers' health, adaptive behaviours, or the number of persons in their social network. The results suggest that services should then be offered to both mothers and children and be adapted as the children grow. As the years pass, more and more studies present new information concerning mothers with intellectual disabilities (ID). The first studies published in the 1980s and early 1990s described parents with ID as having difficulties stimulating their children, as sometimes offering poorer environments, as not always responding adequately to the needs of their children, and as having difficulties making decisions regarding thei