Parenting a child with an intellectual disability: Mapping experiences onto the power threat meaning framework

Abstract

This paper is the first to explore the experiences of parenting a child with intellectual disabilities through the lens of the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF). Typically, parents’ responses are medicalised, pathologised and problematised by services and systems that are underpinned by neoliberal-ableist social policies. Repeat interviews were undertaken with seven parents of children with intellectual disability diagnoses to co-construct PTMF narratives. Utilising template analysis, parents’ experiences readily fitted within the PTMF elements: Power; Threat; Meaning; Threat Responses; and Strengths. Results were synthesised to offer a provisional PTMF pattern concerning parenting a child with ID within ableist societies. Findings emphasised how the threats endured by parents were interlinked with those encountered by their child. It is hoped the resultant pattern and theme content will support parents in developing non-pathologising understandings of their own experiences.