Prevalence and outcomes for parents with disabilities and their children in an Australian court sample.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to obtain sound prevalence and outcomes data on parents with disabilities and their children in statutory child protection proceedings.


METHODS
The court files of all care and protection matters initiated by the statutory child protection authority and finalized in a 9-month period (n=285) at two Children's Courts in NSW, Australia were reviewed.


RESULTS
Parents with disabilities featured in almost one-third of the cases (29.5%). Parental psychiatric disability was most prevalent at 21.8% followed by parental intellectual disability (mental retardation) at 8.8%. Significant associations were found between parental disability and court outcome with a disproportionately large number of children of parents with intellectual disability being made wards of the state.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings demonstrate that parents with disabilities are significantly over-represented in statutory child protection proceedings and that the outcomes of these proceedings vary according to disability type.
Llewellyn
Gwynnyth
G
Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Occupation & Leisure Sciences, University of Sydney, PO Box 170, Lidcombe, NSW 1825, Australia.
McConnell
David
D
Ferronato
Luisa
L
D002648:Child; D002655:Child Custody / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009517:New South Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D015995:Prevalence