Communicatie tussen ouders met licht verstandelijke beperkingen en hulpverleners over 'goed genoeg' opvoederschap: behoeftes en bevorderende factoren

Introduction: parents with mild intellectual disabilities (MID) want, just like other parents, to raise their children as well as possible. Both parents with MID and care professionals experience difficulties in the communication regarding ‘good enough’ parenting. This qualitative research aims to identify the important themes, needs and promoting factors in the communication about ‘good enough’ parenting according to parents and care professionals.

Method: fourteen semi-structured interviews were performed with parents with MID and care professionals with experience in the field of families with MID. Thematic analysis was used to identify important parenting themes, needs and promoting factors.

Results: parents and care professionals reported similar important parenting themes: daily care, child’s behaviour and emotions, parental behaviour and emotions, safety, social environment, learning and development. However, the interpretation of the theme safety differed between parents and professionals. Therefore, clarification is needed when communicating about abstract concepts like emotional safety. Promoting factors in communication regarding raising children according to both parents and care professionals were: trust, experiential learning, offering clarity and overview, equal cooperation and child participation.

Conclusion: the inventory of parenting themes and corresponding needs of parents and care professionals indicates direction in the support of parents with MID. The listed promoting factors clarify at which points the communication between parents and care professionals about difficult parenting topics can be improved.