Trajectories of Mother–Child Closeness and Child Behavioural and Emotional Outcomes in Families of Children With Intellectual Disabilities

BACKGROUND: Children with intellectual disabilities display fewer prosocial behaviours and increased behavioural and emotional problems compared to children without intellectual disabilities. Mother-child closeness may be an important factor in improving behavioural and emotional outcomes in children with intellectual disabilities over time. We aimed to examine the covarying relationship between mother-child closeness and child externalising and internalising behaviour problems, and child prosocial behaviour, respectively, over time. METHODS: Parallel process growth modelling was conducted using data from 353 maternal primary caregivers who took part in three waves of the 1000 Families Study. Mother-child closeness was measured at each wave using the Child-Parent Relationship Scale. Child behavioural and emotional outcomes were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. We controlled for time-varying and time-invariant covariates including the child's level of communication skills, autism diagnosis, maternal psychological distress and family economic adversity. RESULTS: The trajectory of mother-child closeness remained relatively stable across the three waves. After controlling for covariates, the trajectories of mother-child closeness and child prosocial behaviour significantly covaried. However, the trajectory of mother-child closeness did not significantly covary with the trajectory of either child internalising or externalising behaviour problems. CONCLUSION: Interventions aiming to improve child prosocial behaviour and/or mother-child closeness in families of children with intellectual disabilities may benefit from considering the relationship between mother-child closeness and child prosocial behaviour. Findings highlight the need for additional research to understand the relationship between these factors and further examine underlying individual differences in these families.