Authors: Elaine McDonald St Michael's House
(29 Jul 2009)
Ninety-nine fathers of children with intellectual disability participated in the study. Psychological acceptance was found to partially mediate the impact of child behaviour problems on paternal stress, depression, and anxiety. Acceptance also acted as a positive predictor of fathers’ perceptions of positive gain associated with raising their child with intellectual disability. Implications for practice include the potential of acceptance-based interventions, and other psychological interventions targeting acceptance and avoidance processes (e.g. mindfulness-based approaches), to positively affect paternal psychological adjustment.