Trajectories of Mother-Child Closeness and Child Behavioural and Emotional Outcomes in Families of Children With Intellectual Disabilities.

Only three time points were available, so only straight-line change could be tested. A link that takes longer to appear, or that curves, would not show up. Everything came from the mother's own report, including the child's behaviour. No one observed mothers and children together, and parents may find it harder to spot internalising problems such as worry than behaviour they can see. The closeness questionnaire was developed and checked with families of children without intellectual disabilities. Its validity has not been tested in families of children with intellectual disabilities, and the short form may be poor at picking up change over time. The families who stayed in the study were mostly White British and educated to degree level, with 52.41% holding a degree, so they are not representative of all UK families of children with intellectual disabilities. 1184 families started the cohort and 353 were analysed, so the families in this analysis may differ from those who dropped out. The child's age was not accounted for, and the authors say this may explain why their results differ from studies that did adjust for it. The study watched families over time without intervening, so it cannot show that closeness shapes behaviour or the reverse. The researchers changed how they measured family financial difficulty from what they had pre-registered, because the income figure they planned to use was not available at Wave 2.

The work was funded by a PhD studentship from the Economic and Social Research Council Midlands Graduate School Doctoral Training Partnership, and the 1000 Families Study itself by the University of Warwick, the Economic and Social Research Council Warwick Doctoral Training Centre and Cerebra UK. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. No company that sells a treatment was involved.

Do not read this as proof that changing how close you feel to your child will change their behaviour, or the reverse. The study followed families without intervening and everything was reported by the mothers, and once other family factors such as maternal distress and the child's communication were included, closeness and behaviour problems no longer moved together over time.