Living conditions of an adolescent population with Down's syndrome during a one-year period.
Most Danish teens with Down syndrome lived at home, filled their days, and still joined evening activities—aim for the same in your transition plans.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Goldstein (1989) counted every teen with Down syndrome in Denmark.
The team looked at where they lived, what they did all day, and how they spent evenings.
It was a one-year snapshot, like taking a photo of an entire age group.
What they found
Seven out of ten teens still lived with their families.
Every single teen had a place to go each day—school, work, or day program.
Most also took evening classes or joined sports and clubs.
Still, more teens with Down syndrome lived in group homes than typical kids.
How this fits with other research
Greene et al. (2019) asked Korean parents about sleep thirty years later.
They found most kids with Down syndrome wake often and tire their parents.
The two studies don’t clash—they simply show different sides of life: day plans versus night problems.
Park et al. (2025) later mapped four social-life patterns in Korean adults with developmental disabilities.
That work widens the lens from Danish teens to grown-ups across Asia, proving participation stays a hot topic.
Why it matters
Use the 70% home-living rate as a benchmark when you plan teen transitions.
If a family hopes to keep their child at home, show them these odds and line up daily occupation first.
Also screen for sleep issues early—Greene et al. (2019) warn they hide under daytime success.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The living conditions during 1985 of 43 probands with Down's syndrome and 55 controls in the Danish county of Aarhus were investigated. All patients and all controls were born January 1, 1965 to December 31, 1970. The mean age on census day (December 31, 1985) was 17.6 years for probands and 17.4 years for controls. On census day, 30 (70%) of the probands lived in private homes, and 13 (30%) were institutionalized. Controls lived in various places of residence, but none were institutionalized. All probands and all controls had a daily occupation during at least part of 1985. Twenty-seven (63%) probands and 25 (46%) controls attended evening classes during 1985. All but one proband, and all controls participated in recreation activities or entertainment during 1985. More than 75% of the probands went outside their permanent residence at least twice a week (school/work excluded). During 1985, 9 (60%) out of 15 probands institutionalized received an average of 6.5 visits; an average of 20.1 phone calls were made to the staff to inquire about the well being of 7 (47%) out of 15 probands.
Research in developmental disabilities, 1989 · doi:10.1016/0891-4222(89)90040-1