Nursing ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 5-13-2023

Abstract

The parental home is the principal place of residence for adults with developmental disabilities/ intellectual disabilities (DD/ID) (Heller et al., 2007). More than 75% of the adult population with DD/ID living in the U.S. continue to have their basic needs provided by their parents (Williamson & Perkins, 2014). This is based on the estimated statistic that 1.0 to 1.58% of the U.S. adult population has a developmental disability (Anderson et al., 2019; Fox et al., 2015). About 2.9 million adults with DD/ID live with a parent of 55 years (Byun et al., 2006), with more than 25% of these parents older than 60 (Braddock et al., 2013). The predominance of aging parents as the source of long-term care seems to result from factors such as lack of appropriate housing, services, and support and general discrimination (AAIDD, 2013). The study's specific aims: 1. Describe the common meanings and shared practices of parenting an adult with DD/ID. 2. Understanding the challenges parents face in their current lives and the resources they use to meet those challenges. 3. Elucidate the practical advice they have for others who want to be supportive of the efforts of parenting an adult with DD/ID. The methodological approach is a Heideggerian hermeneutic approach using deWitt and Ploeg's (2006) framework for rigor. Data were collected through interviews with 22 New Mexican parents caring for adult children with developmental/intellectual disabilities using semi-structured, open-ended questions and a demographic survey. The inclusion criteria included English-speaking birth parents living in the Southwest who parent an adult with DD/ID over the age of 18 years who still lives at home. Three overarching relational themes, a) parenting as unrelenting vigilance, b) parenting as enduring challenges, and c) parenting as a bridge between adult children with DD/ID and others, and the constitutive pattern, it is what it is… enduring the never-ending, provide a window into these parents' lives. Because little is known about parenting adult children with DD/ID in New Mexico nationally, this research study revealed common meanings and shared practices of parenting adults with DD/ID which informs state and federal policy.

Degree Name

Nursing

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

College of Nursing

First Committee Member (Chair)

Barbara C. Holmes Damron

Second Committee Member

Suzanne Steffan Dickerson

Third Committee Member

Jongwon Lee

Fourth Committee Member

Judy Liesveld

Keywords

Parenting, Adult Children with Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Download

Share

COinS