Resilience in children and young people with intellectual disabilities: a review of literature

Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities,Volume 11, Issue 3, Page 86-97, May 2017. Purpose Building the resilience of children with intellectual disabilities (ChID) can help reduce the personal, social and economic costs associated with mental ill health among such children. The purpose of this paper is to review the research evidence on resilience in ChID and to suggest areas for further research. Design/methodology/approach Journal articles published in the last 20 years were searched in on-line databases to find potential papers for this review. The inclusion criteria were to search for published journal articles covering the theme of resilience in ChID and their families. All identified titles and abstracts were screened which resulted in 50 articles. These were scrutinised more thoroughly and 34 remaining articles were selected for review. Findings Resilience is a dynamic process involving interactions between various risk and protective processes both internal and external to the individual that act to mediate the influences of adverse life events. Five key themes were identified within the literature which helped to form a picture of the current understanding of resilience among ChID and their careers. These were increased risk factors associated with ID, the role of personal attributes on resilience, family and resilience, schooling and resilience, and cultural factors which enhance resilience. Originality/value Despite the consistency with which po...
Source: Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities - Category: Disability Source Type: research