Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.This study is one of a series involving the Manchester Down's Syndrome Cohort. The present study relates to earlier work with the Cohort (see Figure 1 in accompanying documentation). In particular, measures used in the Family Adaptation Study in 1986-87 formed the basis of the present study, thus enabling the investigation of change over time, and the factors predictive of change. This data set covers only the data collected in 1991, and does not therefore reflect the longitudinal aspects of the study. Data sets relating to earlier studies with this Cohort are held at the Hester Adrian Research Centre. The aims of the study were: 1) to provide comprehensive information on child and family functioning during the teenage years; 2) to define factors related over time to the well-being of children, parents and siblings, and to the risk of poor child development and family distress; 3) to investigate parents' areas of concern, their knowledge of resources available, and their needs for help.Main Topics:The 1991 study collected scores on four outcome measures relating to the child. These were: self-sufficiency, social life and behaviour problems (obtained from mothers' self-completion questionnaires),and academic attainments scores (from teachers' questionnaires). Two parental outcome measures were also obtained, covering psychological distress and satisfaction with life, using self-completion questionnaires seperately completed by mothers and fathers. Two outcome measures of sibling adaptation reflected feelings of self worth (from sibling questionnaires) and reported behaviour problems (from mothers' questionnaires). A wide range of predictor variables was collected in order to investigate relationships with these outcomes. The study adopted the model of stress and coping developed by Folkman and Lazarus (1985) to inform the analysis of outcome measures. For details of measurement scales...