Parents with disabilities are people with certain disorders (mental, physical, or other types) who are raising young children or being cared for by their young children. Disability brings various problems to the parents themselves, their children and the whole family. Researchers have studied the effects and issues raised by disabled parents. Aiming to help parents with disabilities, organizations and governments have delivered relevant strategies to provide support. The term 'disability' refers to the existence of one or more long-term restrictions in any core activities including self-care, mobility, communication, or employment.
Classification of disabilities and issues Disability includes a range of distinctive disorders varying in type of condition and severity. The difficulties associated with them vary depending on families' life stage and types of impairment. Physical disability is the relatively more commonly occurring one. Among children living with a disabled parent in Australia, 91% of them have a physically disabled parent while 11% have a parent with mental or behavioral disabilities.
Physically disabled parents "Physical condition[s] include cancers, endocrine diseases, diseases of the nervous system, eye, ear, circulatory system, respiratory system, digestive system and musculoskeletal system, congenital disorders, injuries and other physical conditions. " Much research of physically disabled parents has historically been based on negative hypotheses and recommended conclusions. Parents with physical or sensory disabilities experience misunderstanding of their parenting abilities.
Deaf parents
Deaf parents face communication barriers which may limit their participation in some social networks.
Visually impaired parents Visually impaired parents face difficulties in ensuring a safe environment for both their children and themselves, as well as the restriction in accessible activities for them to take part in with their children.
Mobility difficulties Mobility difficulties make parents rely on others or certain equipment like a wheelchair to support them. More energy and time is often required for them to move from one place to another.
Chronic pain Chronic pain causes stress and could make parents become less patient with their children in daily life. More rest is needed, which limits the time allocated for parenting. The side effects caused by pain relief and other necessary medicines including possible addiction is another challenge faced by parents with chronic pain.
Mentally disabled parents Mental or behavioral disorder includes psychoses, neuroses, intellectual and developmental disorders, and other mental or behavioral disorders.
Intellectual disabilities Parents with intellectual disabilities face discrimination in their parenting role. They have difficulties managing housing and financial issues because of their socio-economic disadvantage, which may lead to debt. As their children grow up and their intellectual ability surpasses their parents', new challenges arise like providing children with assistance in education. A 2018 systematic review found low quality evidence that some parents, mainly mothers with intellectual disabilities, provided effective parenting when provided training and support for the required skills.
Learning difficulties Parents with learning difficulties need help to process information and manage tasks. The way in which they gain and understand information is different from parents without these disabilities. Because of this, many face social criticism and stigma.
Young carer The term 'young carer' means children who participate in taking care of their parents in life.
Types of caring activities provided by children Direct care for parents, including assist in parents' mobility and other personal cares like toileting, eating, communicating, showering and dressing. Among these assist in mobility is the most common direct assistance provided by young carers. General household tasks, for example laundry, cooking, gardening and simple repairing works. Children participating in this form of assist occupy a greater portion than those helping with direct personal care. Financial management like helping with money and bills, even work to earn for living expense.
Age and identification Comparing to children in young age, more children in high school age are taking the responsibility of caring for their disabled parents, which reflects that whether higher-aged children are more possible to have disabled parents or children of higher age are more often asked to provide their parents with assistance thanks to their higher-levelled capacity. According to the data resulted from the research, the local disabled parents in Leicester and Leicestershire of UK are less likely to identify children aged between 12 and 19 as young carers. This fact illustrates that rather than what children virtually do parents rely more on broader social relations within the family when they consider whether their children should be defined as 'young carers'. Whereas doctors depend on how much burden a child take in caring to identify young carers. School teachers play crucial role in identifying young carers in early age and offering help. The young carers identified by teachers are in averagely younger age than those identified by doctors, which makes it important for primary teaching institutions especially to identify young carers.
Why children become young carers Participants from a Young Carers workshop held in Wellington, New Zealand in 2005 indicated that New Zealand children and young people become young carers mainly because of cultural expectations, nature of disability, awareness and acceptance of services, and other reasons relating to the family unit like no one else is taking the responsibility.
Impacts on young carers
Negative When young carers are not supported, negative outcomes will apply. These consequences involving both young carers' social and personal life.
Children's academic achievement is negatively impacted due to the time they spend on doing caring activities for disabled parents. Young carers' academic outcomes are below their peers and boys are effected more severely than girls. Further study impacted. The number of young carers who want to continue studying in university is fewer than normal students, whether because of financial difficulties or need of time for caring. Young carers are afraid of being seen differently. They feel anxious and worried.
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