This chapter examines the breakdown, by means of a range of basic demographic characteristics, of the families in our study.

Stage One

Stage One fieldwork was conducted between October 1998 and June 2000. Interviews were conducted with a parent from 67 families, a child (or children) in 60 of these families, and with 37 partners. The duration of interviews varied widely, with a mean of 133 minutes for parents, 76 minutes for partners and 27 minutes for children. Some of the longer interviews were carried out over two, and occasionally more, visits. Fifty-seven of the parents were mothers – only 10 disabled fathers took part. Twenty-three families were headed by a single parent – only one was a father. Fifty-eight of the disabled parents described their ethnicity as white and five described their ethnicity as Indian (including African-Asian respondents). Only one father was of Indian origin. Two people described their ethnicity as ‘other’ and there were two refusals to this item. No African or Caribbean respondents were recruited to the study, although different cultural backgrounds were represented in a small number of families where children were born into dual-heritage households.

Where respondents identified more than one set of impairments, they were asked which one, in their opinion, was their ‘primary’ impairment. In 21 families the primary impairments involved mental health. However, 33 of the parents in total spoke of having some form of current mental health impairments (Table 2.2).

When we approached potential respondents to our survey, we made it clear that we were interested in the experiences of disabled parents. Nineteen respondents, however, did not describe themselves as disabled, and a further eight respondents said that they ‘sometimes’ described themselves in this way. Less than 60% of the sample, then, responded outright that they were a disabled person (n=39), and respondents who described primarily mental health impairments were less likely to describe themselves as disabled (Table 2.3).

Respondents were also asked when their impairment or condition first had an impact on their day-to-day lives. For half of the sample, the impact (though not necessarily its initial onset) began having already become a parent. The impact for the other half had taken place at various points in their lives, from birth to adulthood (Table 2.4).