title: Psychological distress of parents of infants with Down syndrome.
abstract: The distress level of parents who had infants with Down syndrome (study parents) was compared to that of control parents of infants without disability (infants were all less than 2 years of age). Data were collected in two independent surveys. We matched subjects case-by-case on socioeconomic status. Analysis of pooled data indicated significantly greater depression for the study parents. However, effect sizes were small, and the prevalence of clinical depression was 5.56% (n = 108) among matched study parents and 4.26% (n = 188) among unmatched study parents. Parenting an infant with Down syndrome may cause less distress than previously thought.
authors.affiliation: University of Hong Kong.
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Atkinson
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Minton
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bowman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D004314:Down Syndrome; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology