COVID-19 impact on psychological outcomes of parents, siblings and children with intellectual disability: longitudinal before and during lockdown design

Background: Parents of children with intellectual disability (ID) report comparatively lower levels of well-being than parents of children without ID. Similarly, children with ID, and to a lesser extent their siblings, are reported to show comparatively higher levels of behaviour and emotional problems. Psychological problems may be accentuated by restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, due to increased social, caring and economic stressors and reduced social support. However, existing studies have not been able to examine the impact of COVID-19 restrictions accounting for pre-COVID levels of well-being in these families. In a naturalistic design, we examined outcomes for parents, siblings and children with ID in a two-wave longitudinal study where Wave 2 data were gathered for some families before and some during COVID-19 restrictions. Methods: Parents of children with ID who took part in a Wave 2 survey pre-lockdown (n = 294) and during/post-lockdown (n = 103) completed a number of measures about their well-being and the behaviour and emotional problems of both their child with ID and their nearest-in-age sibling. These same measures had also been completed for all families 2–3 years previously in Wave 1 of the study. Results: After accounting for covariates including family socio-economic circumstances, pre-lockdown and post-lockdown groups did not differ on Waves 1 to 2 change for measures of parental psychological distress, life satisfaction, the impact of caregiving on their lives or perceived positive gains; nor child or sibling internalising or externalising behaviour problems. Conclusions: Findings of the current study indicate that during and shortly after the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom, well-being in families of children with an ID (as reported by parents) was at similar levels compared with prior to the lockdown period.