Footnotes

• Contributors The first author conducted the study as part of a doctoral programme. She was involved in the planning of the study, carried out all data collection, most of the analysis, and was the major contributor to the writing of the paper. PR was the PhD supervisor for this study. He assisted with the planning of the study and contributed to revisions of this paper. AB was a cosupervisor for the PhD study and assisted with planning the study and contributed to revisions of this paper.

• Funding The study was supported by The Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability; who provided research funds towards the completion of the PhD study. Funds were used for conference attendance and stationery. AT was also supported by an Australian Postgraduate Scholarship.

• Competing interests None.

• Ethics approval The study was approved by Edith Cowan University Human Research Ethics Committee, Department of Health WA HREC, and King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women HREC.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.