Personal Support Networks of Young People with Mild Intellectual Disabilities during the Transition to Adult Life

Judit Fullana, Gemma Díaz-Garolera, Carolina Puyaltó, Ana Rey and Rosario Fernández-Peña
Additional contact information
Judit Fullana: Group of Research on Diversity, Institute of Educational Research, University of Girona, 17004 Girona, Spain
Gemma Díaz-Garolera: Group of Research on Diversity, Institute of Educational Research, University of Girona, 17004 Girona, Spain
Carolina Puyaltó: Group of Research on Diversity, Institute of Educational Research, University of Girona, 17004 Girona, Spain
Ana Rey: Group of Research on Diversity, Institute of Educational Research, University of Girona, 17004 Girona, Spain
Rosario Fernández-Peña: Faculty of Nursing, University of Cantabria, 39008 Santander, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 22, 1-21

Abstract: Social support networks occupy a priority position requiring attention in the processes of social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities, during their transition to adult life. The objective of the study was to analyze social support from a relational approach through Personal Network Analysis. A total of 41 young people with mild intellectual disabilities participated in the study, in two groups differentiated according to their educational stage, either compulsory secondary education or post-compulsory training. Descriptive and comparative results are presented based on the variables of structure, composition, and functional content in the social support of their personal networks. The results show that both groups have restricted personal networks, made up of members of the family and the educational environment who constitute the main providers of support. When moving towards adult life, the change in social contacts in other educational, geographical, and relational settings may mean a change in the provision of support received in previous life stages. Developing social and educational actions to support these people in the development and maintenance of social relationships is essential to their access to support resources that will affect their social inclusion.

Keywords: intellectual disabilities; personal network analysis; social networks analysis; social support; transition to adult life (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/11810/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/11810/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:22:p:11810-:d:676616

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().