Booth, T. & Booth, W.,

2002,

Reviewed by Dr Susan McGaw,
Cornwall Partnership (NHS) Trust.

Methodology

An interesting reflective analysis or exampling' methodology applied to the personal stories and lived experience of a group of 55 women. The main purpose was to evaluate the common assumption that partnerships of mothers with intellectual disabilities tend to be (1) unstable and short-lived; (2) exploitative rather than supportive; and (3) abusive (of the mother and/or the children). Data was drawn from three projects that had been conducted by the authors over 10 years, each of which contrasted in their methodology:

• Project 1 : used a life story methodology to study 33 parents' view of parenting (within this group there were 18 mothers and 7 fathers who had intellectual disabilities).
• Project 2 : was a narrative study of now-adult children who grew up in families headed by a parent or parents with intellectual disabilities. Thirty people were involved in the study from 24 families where at least one of their parents had intellectual disabilities.
• Project 3 : was an action research project that provided advocacy support for parents with intellectual disabilities. A total of 25 families participated in this project.

The primary data were collected from a range of resources including interview transcripts, case records, observational notes, documentary evidence and research logs. Consequently, information was: a) first-hand from 44 of the 55 mothers (and some partners), b) second-hand from sons or daughters (in 11 cases), c) from third parties (action research workers) and d), from direct observation.

Critical appraisal

The authors acknowledge the limitations inherent in this type of analysis. The pooling of parents across the studies and different eligibility criteria employed means that the sample group may not be statistically representative of other parents with intellectual disabilities, which limits generalization of the findings. Also, in the absence of clinical or assessment data about any of the mothers in the study, a lot of emphasis is given to the authors' interpretation of the quality of relationships and events. Nevertheless, the data that emerges is provocative and interesting and has much 'face validity'. Further research should expand on this study's interesting findings to incorporate random sampling and psychometric measures to strengthen data analysis.

Key findings

• 55 women with intellectual disabilities presented with a range of additional vulnerabilities including: physical and sensory impairments, mental health problems, a childhood history involving sexual and physical abuse, and experiencing physical violence and /or sexual assault or rape as an adult.
• Couples were brought together by the shared experience of disability, exclusion and discrimination.
• Present or past husbands or partners were the main perpetrators of violence against the women. Alcohol abuse and/or illegal drug use were reported in 12 partners, and in 9 instances they were said to be violent towards the mother and/or their children.
• The majority of women had been involved in a long-term continuing relationship. In those instances when the relationship broke down, in the majority of cases the break and separation occurred after a period of 5 to 10 years. These figures appear to challenge assumptions about the transient nature of relationships among this group of parents.
• Relationships, whether described as supportive ( n = 30) or non-supportive ( n =24), could be placed at a point on a continuum rather than assigned to a discrete category of male partner type. Half of the non-supportive men were abusive, and some abusive men were supportive.
• The non-abusive relationships ( n =23) were long-lasting compared to the non-supportive abusive partnerships ( n = 12), which were short-lived or eventually broke down. Other types of relationship existed between these two extremes.
• The 55 mothers had a total of 149 children, of whom half ( n = 24) had experienced one child being adopted, fostered or taken into alternative care.

Social work practice implications

Social work practice could be better informed by the demographic data and the case studies illustrated in this paper, especially with regard to the complexities and variations of what constitutes 'supportive' or 'non-supportive' relationships for women with intellectual disabilities. Social workers will find the discussion interesting, especially the author's hypotheses that supportive relationships are based on the human capital that a man brings into the family in terms of their skills, knowledge and personal abilities. It is speculated that vulnerable women probably consider the 'financial capital, 'social capital' and/or 'human capital' gains in their relationships as a means of measuring the quality of that relationship. The discussion offers an explanation as to why many vulnerable women with disabilities stay in relationships that might be perceived as negative or damaging to them or to their children.

Policy implications