Community participation of people with an intellectual disability: a review of empirical findings.
Community living alone leaves adults with ID stuck on the sidelines—friend lists, jobs, and weekend fun stay tiny until we build specific social bridges.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors pulled every quantitative paper they could find on adults with intellectual disability living in the community. They ended up with 23 studies from six countries.
They looked at three things: size of friend networks, paid jobs, and free-time activities. Then they stacked those numbers against same-age adults without disabilities.
What they found
Across all studies the story stayed the same. Most adults with ID have only two or three regular friends. Only one in four works a real job. Free time is mostly TV alone.
These gaps are three to four times wider than for other adults. Living in the community helps, but it does not close the gap.
How this fits with other research
Kozma et al. (2009) looked at the same year and found community homes beat large institutions in seven out of ten life areas. L et al. agree, yet add a warning: simply leaving the institution is not enough.
Cameranesi et al. (2022) tracked adults with profound ID after they moved. Quality of life shot up within six months. This extends L’s point: placement can improve life, but only if extra supports follow.
Beadle-Brown et al. (2002) followed one cohort for years and saw social impairment stay almost frozen. That older data set foreshadows L’s bleak numbers and shows the problem is stubborn, not new.
Why it matters
If you write plans for adults with ID, do not stop at “client lives in the community.” Add goals that grow real ties: join a club, ride the bus with a coworker, volunteer at the animal shelter. Measure friends, not just hours out of the house. Without these steps the gap L found will sit right there in your next six-month review.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
STUDY DESIGN: A systematic review of the literature. OBJECTIVES: To investigate community participation of persons with an intellectual disability (ID) as reported in empirical research studies. METHOD: A systematic literature search was conducted for the period of 1996-2006 on PubMed, CINAHL and PSYCINFO. Search terms were derived from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Three investigators assessed the relevance of the initially identified studies using predefined content and methodological selection criteria. Included domains of community participation were: (1) domestic life; (2) interpersonal interactions and relationships; (3) major life areas; and (4) community, civic and social life. RESULTS: Of 2936 initial hits, 23 quantitative studies eventually met the selection criteria and were included in the study. Only two studies are based on a theoretical framework. Research instruments were various and were most often ad hoc and not validated. The average number of persons in the social network of people with ID appears to be 3.1, one of them usually being a professional service staff member. People with ID are 3-4 times less employed than non-disabled peers; they are less likely to be employed competitively and are more likely to work in sheltered workshops or in segregated settings than those with other disabilities. People with ID are less likely to be involved in community groups, and leisure activities are mostly solitary and passive in nature. Most of the people with ID had been accompanied in an activity by training/therapeutic staff. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that on the basis of empirical evidence, within the time frame of this literature search, little is known about community participation of people with ID. Many researchers did not clearly define community participation and were concerned with limited areas of community participation; research is seldom based on a theoretical framework. Most studies focus on people with mild ID, and there are few reports of the subjects' sample. However, one conclusion can consistently be drawn from the review: people with ID living in community settings participate more than people living in a segregated setting, but their participation level is still much lower than non-disabled and other disability groups.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2009 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2008.01144.x