Individual, life events, family and socio-economic factors associated with young people with intellectual disability and with and without behavioural/emotional problems

The aim of this study was to compare a range of individual, life events, family and socio-economic factors associated with young people with intellectual disabilities with and without behavioural / emotional problems. Teachers in 16 schools in one region of the UK completed a postal questionnaire on 249 young people with intellectual disabilities aged between 11 and 19 years. There were two groups: 155 young people with behavioural / emotional issues, and 94 without such issues Using a binary logistic regression analysis, a number of individual, life events, family and socio-economic risk factors were found to be significantly associated with emotional / behavioural problems. The results are discussed alongside findings from other studies. The importance of a multi-dimensional assessment is highlighted, as well as the inter-dependent nature of the risk factors.