Identification of personal factors that determine work outcome for adults with intellectual disability.
IQ is irrelevant for job placement—target behavior support and self-determination instead.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Porter et al. (2008) tracked adults with intellectual disability who were moving into either sheltered workshops or community jobs. They looked at which personal traits predicted who got which placement. The team measured IQ, behavior problems, daily living skills, self-determination, age, and benefit status.
What they found
IQ scores did not predict job placement at all. Instead, adults with fewer behavior problems, better daily skills, higher self-determination, younger age, and no pension benefits were more likely to land community jobs. Psychiatric symptoms also steered people toward sheltered settings.
How this fits with other research
Butterworth et al. (2024) later showed that, even after 40 years of programs, most adults with IDD still work in segregated shops. Their review folds in the 2008 finding that IQ is useless for placement decisions.
Gabriels et al. (2001) had already shown that moving to community settings boosts self-determination. Porter et al. (2008) now name that same trait as a key job predictor, closing the loop.
Timmons et al. (2011) interviewed stakeholders and found that family, staff, and personal wishes shape job choices. Their qualitative work extends the 2008 model by adding real-world voices to the statistical predictors.
Why it matters
Stop using IQ to gatekeep jobs. Write support plans that cut problem behavior and build daily skills. Add choice-making opportunities every session—pick tasks, pick break time, pick work partner. These moves raise the same self-determination score that A et al. linked to better placement odds.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Access to employment for people with intellectual disability (ID) has become a social priority. The aim of the present study is to try to determine which variables [sociodemographic variables, intelligence quotient (IQ), presence or absence of a psychiatric disorder, functioning, self-determination, and behavioural problems] could most reliably account for access to remunerated employment of people with ID. METHODS: Two groups of people with ID participated in this study: (1) 69 workers in a sheltered-employment programme; and (2) 110 clients of programmes in sheltered workshops. Both programmes were run by the Pardo-Valcarce Foundation in Madrid (Spain). The following variables were assessed for every participant: IQ, functioning, behavioural problems, self-determination and presence of psychiatric symptoms. A binary logistic regression analysis was carried out in order to identify the variables that best explained work outcome (sheltered workshop programme vs. sheltered employment programme). RESULTS: Although IQ showed no significant differences between the two groups of participants, the remaining variables did: behavioural problems, functioning, psychiatric symptoms and self-determination significantly explained work outcome. As for sociodemographic variables, whereas gender did not show any significant relationship with the labour status of the participants, significant differences were found when considering variables such as age and pension benefits. CONCLUSIONS: All the main variables considered, except IQ, turned out to be significant. Our findings should be considered encouraging, as they apparently show that both personal and social efforts can help individuals to overcome their low intellectual functioning in order to achieve access to employment. Such study highlights the importance of a prior psychopathological evaluation and efforts to enhance self-determination in order to improve work inclusion for people with ID.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2008 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2008.01098.x