Due to the ageing of the world’s population, age-friendly cities are emerging to promote active ageing by optimising opportunities for health, participation and safety, in order to improve the quality of life of older people. Despite initiatives in different countries, there is a lack of empirical research exploring their impact on older people. The objective of this study is to evaluate an age-friendly city by analysing its relationship with life satisfaction, taking into account the age cohort variables of the elderly and whether they live alone or with someone else. A two-stage study, in which 66 subjects participated in the qualitative analysis (focus groups) in Stage I and 203 of the quantitative analysis (survey methodology) or Stage II. Despite the differences found in the different groups of elderly persons, for all of them the domains of outdoor spaces and buildings, and community support and health services, are significantly related to life satisfaction, with the latter showing itself to be a predictor of such satisfaction. It is important to take into account the different groups of elderly persons, so as to be able to establish suitable specific actions. This study aims to make a contribution to the development of public policies that influence the life satisfaction of the elderly.
(1) Background: Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is diagnosed when the child experiences problems in language with no known underlying biomedical condition and the information required for its correct evaluation must be obtained from different contexts. The Children’s Communication Checklist (CCC-2) covers aspects of a child’s communication related to structural language and pragmatic skills, which are linked to social cognition or executive functions. The aim of this article is to examine parents’ reports using the Spanish version of the CCC-2 questionnaire and its association with different formal assessments related to communication. (2) Methods: 30 children with DLD (3; 10–9 years old) and 39 age-matched (AM) children with typical development were assessed using formal measures of structural language, pragmatics, social cognition, and executive functions. Parents of children with DLD answered the Spanish version of the CCC-2. (3) Results: The performance of children with DLD was lower in all the formal assessments in comparison to AM children. The CCC-2 was significantly correlated with all the direct child assessments, although only formal measures of structural language predicted both the structural language and pragmatics scales of the CCC-2. (4) Conclusions: The CCC-2 answered by parents was consistent with formal assessments in children with DLD, and structural language seemed to be the best predictor of all the subscales.
Background: Resilience allows a more positive coping and improves parents' wellbeing when they face a difficult situation like having a child with a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD). We aim to analyze the development of resilience in parents of children with different NDD (ASD, DLD and ADHD) with different levels of structural language and social cognition, as well as the social support available for their families, and compare it to children with typical development (TD).Method: We analyzed the level of resilience of 156 parents, 73 with children with TD and 73 with three different NDD, taking into account variables such as age, structural language (receptive grammar) and social cognition (emotional understanding) of the children, and also the type of social support available to them.Results: Children with DLD and ASD showed lower receptive grammar and emotional comprehension skills, although only parents of children with ASD obtained better resilience scores. Moreover, age of children and formal support variables predicted the resilience of the parents according to the type of NDD.Discussion: The severity of social cognition and structural language difficulties of children with NDD and the fact of having support from professionals and family associations have a significant influence on the development of parental resilience.
23 August 2023 in Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities
Background: A positive conception of sexuality among people with intellectual disabilities is crucial and relies on several social and interpersonal contexts. The goal of this study is to analyse the interaction and impact of three different contextual groups: individuals with intellectual disabilities, their parents, and professionals working with them.Methods: Survey data were collected from 330 people with intellectual disabilities attending occupational centres in eastern Spain, 330 parents, and 100 professionals.Results: Correlation and variance analyses of dyad‐level data show significant differences among the three groups in all variables. Professionals perceived people with intellectual disabilities to have higher knowledge of socio‐sexual norms than people with intellectual disabilities actually appear to be, but they are also more concerned about aspects related to this area of people with intellectual disabilities. Compared to people with intellectual disabilities and professionals, parents perceived people with intellectual disabilities to have lower sexual knowledge.Conclusions: Our study demonstrates inconsistent perceived knowledge of people with intellectual disabilities' socio‐sexual norms and sexual knowledge among the three groups, leading to disparate levels of concern regarding people with intellectual disabilities sexuality. Thus, the need to collect information from different perspectives for more accurate reporting and the critical need for sex education programs that involve the target population, but also parents and professionals who frequently interact with people with intellectual disabilities are highlighted.
Background This paper presents a description of the development and psychometric properties of a self-report instrument for the assessment of sexual behaviour and concerns of people with mild intellectual disabilities (SEBECOMID-S). Methods and procedures The study included 281 people with mild intellectual disabilities. The psychometric properties were examined through exploratory factorial analysis, descriptive statistics, and reliability indices. Results The exploratory factor analyses offered a structure with three factors: concern about the appropriateness of their sexual behaviour, sexual practices performed, and safe sex practices. The model presents an excellent fit (χ2/df = 1.10, RMSEA = 0.019, CFI = 0.997, TLI = 0.995, and SRMR = 0.065). General test reliability was good (α = 0.77, Ω = 0.76). Conclusions SEBECOMID-S is a valid and reliable tool to obtain objective information about the sexual behaviour and concerns of people with mild intellectual disabilities. The use of this instrument will make it possible to adjust their training to their real experiences, making it more effective.