David McConnell, PhD, OTR

Area of Study / Keywords

Family Disability Child Welfare Social Inclusion Health Equity

About

David McConnell, PhD, is a University of Sydney alumnus, now Professor of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta. Dr. McConnell is a family and disability researcher. His primary research interests include parents and parenting with intellectual disability; children with disabilities and the fabric of everyday family life; and more broadly, disability-inclusive health and social care. Dr. McConnell was the co-creator of Healthy Start, a world-first national strategy to build systemic capacity to support parents with intellectual disability and promote a healthy start to life for their children. His research on disability and discrimination in the child welfare system has been replicated on three continents, and cited in the US Supreme court. In one his more recent contributions, Dr. McConnell explores continuities and discontinuities in the history of intellectual disability, casting light on the legacy of 20th century eugenics.

Research

Dr. McConnell directs the Family and Disability Research Collaborative (FDRC), which is a transdisciplinary, community-engaged program of research involving researchers and collaborators from multiple academic institutions, government and community organisations. FDRC researchers and collaborators, many of who whom have lived experience of disability, share a commitment to democratic processes of knowledge creation and socially transformative action addressing multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination and disadvantage, to promote justice and health for all. The FDRC has two main branches. These are

• Sexuality, Relationships and Parenthood. Focused primarily but not exclusively on persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, this branch encompasses research on inclusion and belonging; supported parenting; intimate partner violence; health inequities; and, systemic discrimination.
• Social Ecology of Child and Family Resilience. Focused primarily but not exclusively on disabled children and youth, and their families, this branch encompasses research on family adjustment and adaptation; sustainable family care; inclusive early childhood education; and, health and well-being.   

New and Continuing Projects

• D McConnell (PI), with L Pacheco, M Aunos & S Phelan. From Stories to praxis: Transforming community-based support services for women with disabilities who have survived intimate partner violence. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Partnership Development.

Over 50% of women with disabilities, including 1,500,000+ women in Canada, have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime. Moreover, disabled women confront barriers to access and system failures that heighten the risk of repeated victimization and lasting trauma. The overarching GOAL of this project is the co-creation, with disabled women and community organizations, of a framework for developing local supports and services for victims-survivors of IPV that are inclusive, trauma-informed and attentive to intersectionality. Outcomes will include a deeper understanding of the lived experience, practical realities and support needs, priorities and preferences of women with disabilities who have survived IPV, and identification of policies and practices that provide them with better opportunities to navigate a path to safety and well-being.

• S Phelan (PI), with D McConnell, S Moore, J L MacIsaac & C Mah. Equitable access to inclusive early learning and childcare for disabled children: The family experience. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Insight Development.

Families of children experiencing disability in Canada have experienced a long history of inequitable access to inclusive early learning and childcare due to financial, institutional, political, and discriminatory barriers. The problem that frames this study is two-fold: 1) There are systemic barriers that limit families’ abilities to access and secure inclusive early learning and childcare for their children experiencing disability, and 2) There are systemic barriers that limit opportunities for full inclusion in early learning and childcare settings for children experiencing disability and their families. The objectives of this research are to: 1) Explore barriers and facilitators to accessing inclusive early learning and childcare for families of children experiencing disability, 2) Explore families of children experiencing disability’s experiences of inclusion in early learning and childcare, and 3) Explore how sociocultural factors shape opportunities for inclusion in early learning and childcare for families of children experiencing disability in Nova Scotia.

• S Phelan (PI), with M Aston, S Egilson, J Sheriko, N Spencer & D McConnell. Promoting Health and Well-being of Children experiencing Disability through Inclusion in Child Culture. New Health Investigator Grant, Research Nova Scotia

Ecocultural theorists contend that the most important influence on children’s development and well-being is cultural context; the combination of environment, ecology, activity settings and their meanings, beliefs, values, practices, and routines. For children, cultural context includes child culture that is adult-driven, child-driven, and a combination of the two. Inclusion in child-driven culture, for example, play, is fundamental to all children's health and well-being. The three primary objectives of this research are: 1) to investigate children experiencing disability’s experiences of inclusion/exclusion in child-driven culture, 2) to understand the socio-cultural factors that shape opportunities for inclusion in child-driven culture, and 3) to understand the ecological factors that foster inclusion in child-driven culture.

• D McConnell (PI), with M Aunos, L Pacheco, M Feldman, A Hughson & L Laliberte. Support needs and service pathways of parents with intellectual disability. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Partnership Development. 

This study aims to determine a solution to two inter-related problems for human service systems. One problem is that we currently lack the requisite knowledge to make good on our commitment under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to "eliminate discrimination against..." and "render appropriate assistance to..." parents with intellectual disability or learning difficulties "in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities" (Article 23). The second problem is that there is no provincial or national strategy at present to translate extant knowledge about parents and parenting with intellectual disability into the planning and delivery of more effective and appropriate parenting and family supports. As a result of these two problems, children of parents with intellectual disability are at increased risk of poorer developmental health, and they are many times more likely than their peers to be apprehended by child and youth protection authorities and permanently placed out-of-home.

• D McConnell (PI), with S Phelan, C Rinaldi & R Breitkreuz. The loneliness crisis and the decline of free play: Pathways and effects. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Insight. 

Over the past few decades, Canada, like other post-industrial societies, has undergone a number of sweeping social, demographic and economic changes which have transformed the conditions of contemporary family life. Many parents are now struggling to meet the demands of a workplace that can reach out to them 24/7, care for children and ageing parents, and maintain satisfying social relationships. Consequently, chronic loneliness is widespread. The implications of chronic loneliness for parents and children, including parents of children with disabilities who are particularly vulnerable to loneliness, may be far-reaching. This study will investigate the possibility that a rise in the prevalence of loneliness among parents of children with and without disabilities may have contributed to the decline of free and 'risky' (i.e., physically & socially challenging) outdoor play, and portend a rise in the prevalence of social-emotional problems among children and youth.

Featured Publications

• Reeves, P., McConnell, D., & Phelan, S. K. (2023). The (radical) role of belonging in shifting and expanding understandings of social inclusion for people labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Sociology of Health & Illness, 45(2), 317-330. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13574

There is a gap between the desired outcomes of social inclusion policy and the everyday experiences of people labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Despite belonging rhetorically named in social inclusion policy and practice, belonging is often absent in the lives of people labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities and remains under theorised in its relationship to social inclusion. In this paper, we explore the role belonging might play in narrowing the gap between how social inclusion is theorised and how it is experienced. Drawing on critical disability and feminist relational theories, we outline a relational conceptualisation of belonging and use it to ‘crip’ the construct of social inclusion. Exploring the synergies and tensions that surface when social inclusion and belonging are held together as discrete but interconnected constructs, we name four conceptual shifts and expansions that allow us to see social inclusion differently. Through the centring of the experiences of people labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities, we explore the ways belonging can help to reimagine inclusion from assimilationist, static, objective and formal towards inclusion as fluid, negotiated, (inter) subjective, (in)formal and intimate.

• McConnell, D., & Phelan, S. (2022). Devolution of eugenic practices: Sexual and reproductive oppression of people with ascribed intellectual disability. Social Science & Medicine, Volume 298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114877

Early 20th century eugenicists propagated a system of ideas, values and dispositions that constituted adults with intellectual disability as the antithesis of the paradigmatic citizen, and a biological threat to society. The eugenic schema was encoded in sex-segregated institutionalization and, in many places, forced sterilization. These eugenic practices are no longer sanctioned. However, eugenic practices did not disappear. In this paper we argue that the eugenic schema is now encoded and purveyed through a multiplicity of social arrangements and practices that deny adults with intellectual disability the respect, opportunity and means necessary to participate on a par with others in social life. Such practices include, for example, covert or coerced contraception, and discriminatory child welfare interventions leading to high rates of custody deprivation. Drawing on relational theory, we problematize normative assumptions of embodiment and citizenship, which give rise to attributions of incapacity, and argue that adults with intellectual disability need what all other adults need to make and effect choices concerning their sexuality, relationships and parenthood, i.e., recognition, opportunity and support.

• McConnell, D., & Phelan, S. K. (2022). Intimate partner violence against women with intellectual disability: A relational framework for inclusive, trauma‐informed social services. Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(6), e5156-e5166. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13932

Women with intellectual disability experience intimate partner violence at higher rates and tend to remain in abusive relationships longer than non-disabled women. The purpose of this inquiry was to generate a preliminary set of principles and de- lineate domains of support as a general guide for social service workers supporting women with intellectual disability through the difficult, often stop-start process of ending an abusive relationship and creating a desired future. Taking a pragmatic inquiry approach, guiding principles and domains of support were generated through a triangulated engagement with relational theory, relevant published research, and original data gathered through interviews with five experienced social service work- ers. The results comprise a relational framework for inclusive, trauma-informed services aimed at fostering the relational autonomy of women with intellectual disability. Enacting relational principles of reflexivity, recognition, solidarity and safety, social service workers can support women with intellectual disability with safety planning, securing basic life needs, strengthening social relationships, acquiring new skills and nurturing self-affective attitudes of self-respect, self-efficacy and self-esteem.

• Pacheco, L., Aunos, M., Feldman, M., & McConnell, D. (2022). Reasonable efforts? Child maltreatment investigations and service referrals of parents with ascribed cognitive impairments in Canada. Child Maltreatment, 27(3), 501-510. https://doi.org/10.1177/10775595211001109

Parents with ascribed cognitive impairment (CI) are more likely than parents without CI to have their children removed by child protective services (CPS). Inequitable access to parenting and family supports and services is thought to be a contributing factor. Utilizing data on a 3-month sample of 15,980 child maltreatment investigations across Canada, including 1,244 cases featuring parents with CI, this study investigated service referrals and non-referrals. The results of this secondary data analysis suggest that, relative to need, parents with CI are less likely to be referred for matched services, including home based\reunification services post child removal. It is unclear whether disparate rates of referral are driven by a lack of inclusive services, and/or the conflation of parental CI with perceived parenting deficits. When perceived parenting deficits are attributed to parental CI, CPS may wrongly assume that these are irremediable. The findings highlight the need for building inter-sectoral service pathways in order to render appropriate assistance to parents with CI in the performance of their childrearing responsibilities.

•  Savage, A., McConnell, D., Emerson, E., & Llewellyn, G. (2020). The subjective well-being of adolescent Canadians with disabilities. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29(12), 3381-3397.

In line with growing interest in subjective well-being (SWB) as a goal of public policy, a substantial research base examining the correlates, effects and determinants of adolescent SWB is beginning to develop. However, there is a dearth of data on the SWB of adolescents with disabilities. The limited available data suggest that adolescents with disabilities in high-income countries face a heightened risk of poorer SWB relative to peers without disabilities. Few studies have investigated potential causes of disability-based differences in adolescent SWB. This lack of research may be due, in part, to the widely held but now contested assumption that disability is inherently negative and therefore a direct cause of poorer SWB. Utilising data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, this study investigated the potential mediating role of adverse life conditions, including socioeconomic disadvantage, impoverished peer relationships, and peer victimisation. Employing structural equation modelling, the study found evidence consistent with a causal chain running from early childhood disability, through adverse life conditions, to poorer adolescent SWB. The findings suggest that poorer SWB in adolescents with disabilities cannot be assumed or attributed to disability in any straightforward way. All else being equal, including economic and social resources, adolescents with disabilities may enjoy levels of SWB that are not significantly different from their non-disabled peers.

Teaching

Dr. McConnell's teaching includes graduate level courses on research and scholarly practice; disability theory and politics; and, ecocultual theory and the project of everyday family life.   

Graduate Training Opportunities

Dr. McConnell and the FDRC are actively seeking trainees (PhD & PostDoc) who have demonstrated interest in disability and /or gender studies. Graduates with lived experience of disability are strongly encouraged to apply. In addition to undertaking their own supervised research, successful applicant/s will contribute to a SSHRC funded project, "From Stories to praxis: Transforming community-based support services for women with disabilities who have survived intimate partner violence". Please send an updated CV, a statement of significant contributions, and contact information for 2 references to David.McConnell@ualberta.ca.