Supporting parents : development of a tool to measure self-efficacy of parents with learning disabilities

There has been a steady increase over the last 20 years in the number of parents with learning disabilities who are referred to social workers and community health practitioners. It is a common experience for parents with learning disabilities to have their child removed from the home and placed permanently in care, and although they are often judged as inadequate parents, it is known that they can be good enough parents when provided with parenting support. This article reports the development of a tool to measure the self-efficacy of parents with learning disabilities, which will help to evaluate parenting initiatives specifically aimed at this parent group. A tool to measure parenting self-efficacy (TOPSE) has been adapted to be accessible to parents with learning disabilities. Eighteen parents took part in the study to complete and comment on the tool with the help of a researcher from the community learning disabilities team. This tool, which consists of 45 self-efficacy statements, now needs to be tested on a larger sample of parents with learning disabilities.