Quality of Life SIRG – Research Roundtable
March 1, 2004
13:00-14:30 UTC
IASSIDD’s Quality of Life SIRG is pleased to host an online Research Roundtable to highlight some of the exciting research that is being carried out worldwide in quality of life.
We will begin with an interesting and timely 30-minute presentation from Israel on quality of life of caregivers during wartime. Please see the abstract below. This will be followed by a series of short presentations of 5-10 minutes. We have some time slots still open, so if you have recent research from the past couple of years that you would like to share, send your name and topic to our SIRG secretary Olga Muries Cantan: olgamc1@blanquerna.url.edu.
Whether you are a presenter or not, please register for FREE to attend this Roundtable.
Get to know your fellow Quality of Life researchers!
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkcO6vrDkoGNCFJWw-pynSuLR028o9mkZc
Quality of Life and Emotional Well-being of Families of Children
with Severe Developmental Disabilities During Wartime
Presenters: Dana Roth1, Yael Karni-Visel 2, Sagit lev2, Nomi Werbeloff2
1Beit Issie Shapiro, Israel
2Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Background: The October 7th Hamas terror attack on Israel, and the following Israeli response which evolved to a war, exposed many civilians to trauma, military conflict and continuous missile attacks. Crises tend to exacerbate the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities and their caregivers. The literature lacks empirical data on the impact of caring for children with developmental disabilities (DD) during wartime.
Aim: To assess emotional well-being and family quality of life (FQOL) of primary caregivers of children with DD during wartime.
Methods: 408 caregivers (87.2% mothers) of children with DD (e.g., autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disabilities; mean age=9.22±5.0) completed anonymous online questionnaires, including adapted versions of: (1) FQOL survey (Brown et al., 2006) and (2) Mental health 5-inventory (Veit & Ware, 1983(- related to the periods before and since the outbreak of war.
Results: Emotional well-being significantly decreased (Cohen’s d effect size=0.65, p<.001), regardless of child characteristics and exposure to war events. There was a greater decline in emotional well-being reported by mothers than fathers (d=0.70 vs d=0.37, respectively; p=.05). A significant decrease was evident in all nine domains of FQOL, with effect sizes ranging from 1.22 in the leisure domain to 0.11 in the domain of support from others.
Conclusions: Decline in mental health and FQOL during wartime are evident among caregivers of children with DD, especially mothers. These may increase the caregiver burden and deplete the availability of resources. Thus, it is necessary to design tailored therapeutic and administrative responses for caregivers and families of children with DD both during and after wartime.