Fathers' Experiences of Parenting a Young Adult with Down's Syndrome

Introduction: Parenting research still focuses predominantly on mothers’ experiences. In a systematic review of fathers’ perceptions of parenting a child with a developmental disability, Boyd et al. (2019) highlighted that there is still a gap in understanding fathers’ experiences of parenting this population and recommended that future researchers use qualitative methodologies to gain a richer understanding of fathers’ experiences. Less research appears to have explored the experiences of parents of children with Down’s syndrome (DS), and specifically, experiences of parents of older children. This is an identified need, given that the transition to adulthood has been identified to be one of the most difficult times within the life cycle for these parents (Goff et al., 2016). Whilst mothers’ experiences of parenting a young adult (YA) with DS have been explored (e.g., Docherty & Reid, 2009), this study aimed to address the gap in exploring fathers’ experiences of parenting this population. Method: A qualitative methodology was used to explore fathers’ experiences. Participants were nine fathers who were parent to a YA with DS (aged between 18 – 25). Fathers agreed to take part in a semi-structured interview to talk about their experiences. The interview data was subsequently analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith et al., 2009). Individual analysis was initially conducted for each participant, before developing a group analysis to capture the shared experiences amongst fathers, as well as their differences. Results: The group analysis resulted in three superordinate themes, and ten associated subordinate themes. The superordinate themes were: ‘Internal conflict: negotiating current developmental stage’, ‘Internal conflict: navigating the next steps’ and ‘Challenges of the system’. Discussion: The key findings are discussed in relation to wider relevant literature and psychological theory. A critical evaluation of the study is then presented, before discussing potential clinical implications and suggesting avenues for future research.