Developmental language disorder: Maternal stress level and behavioural difficulties of children with expressive and mixed receptive-expressive DLD

Purpose: The current study aimed to compare bullying and victimisation behaviour, levels of emotional and behavioural problems and maternal stress in children with expressive and mixed receptive-expressive language disorders. Methods: We measured the bullying and victimisation behaviour, the emotional and behavioural problems as well as the maternal stress in a sample of 4-9-year-old children with language disorders (N = 65). Results: Our main findings were that although bullying and victimisation were common in both groups; the children with expressive language disorders tended to be perpetrators (teacher-reported) while the children with mixed language disorders experienced more bullying and tended to be victims (self-reported); the latters' mothers perceived significantly more stress compared to mothers of children with expressive language disorders. Furthermore, the results of the study indicate that, although the number of children within the family was identified as the strongest predictor explaining maternal stress, maternal stress is a multifactorial concept influenced by many factors. Conclusion: For a successful intervention in children with developmental language disorders, it seems to be very important to identify parental stressors beyond the treatment of the child's problems.