Community Perspectives and Subjective Quality of Life

Abstract

Community integration has increasingly become the focus of research and practice in the field of intellectual disability. Recent research has demonstrated that community integration needs to be more than simply living within a community, people need to use the community and feel like they belong. This study pioneers the use of a sense of community measure to better understand the degree to which feelings of belonging are associated with quality of life. One hundred and thirty two students from both urban and rural schools participated in this study. Half of them had an intellectual disability and the remainder were matched peers without a disability. Life satisfaction scores for adolescents with an intellectual disability were found to correlate significantly with reported levels of activity, friends and support in the neighbourhood. People with an intellectual disability reported lower usage of some community facilities and significantly lower social belonging and empowerment than their matched nondisabled peers. The groups did not differ significantly on the sense of community measure and the above patterns were true for both urban centres and rural towns.

Quality of Life of Iranian Vocational Students with and without Intellectual Disability

“…The results showed that there was no significant difference between total Quality of Life scores of the two groups. This result is consistent with the results of Bramston, Bruggerman, and Pretty (2002), although inconsistent with other previous studies (Sands, Kozleski, & French, 2000;Watson & Keith, 2002). It was expected that the normal group would report better quality of life than the intellectually disabled group, but in this case neither group had a positive selfreport of quality of life.…”

“…This dimension addresses leisure time, leisure activities, and family gatherings. This result is inconsistent with previous studies (Bramston, et al, 2002;Watson & Keith, 2002). Social relationship activities in various environments (like leisure and family activities) often are known as the key consequences of social integrity, influencing perceptions of members of the society, belongingness, and quality of life (Mahon, et al, 2000).…”

“…Also logically, the Nondisabled group had higher scores on Empowerment/independence; intellectually disabled individuals do not attain as much independence, so they would feel less in control of their options in life (Bramston, et al, 2002). Due to cognitive characteristics of intellectually disabled individuals, their families think that they should support and control them.…”

Youth Life Satisfaction: A Review of the Literature

“…Similarly, increasing awareness of the effect of community integration and inclusion for children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities has been growing. Results of an Australian study of community belongingness and LS among intellectually disabled students, for example, has indicated that LS is significantly correlated with levels of activity, friends, and support within the community (see Bramston et al 2002). Further, studies have shown that adolescents with intellectual disability report lower use of community facilities, and feel less belongingness and control over their choices than their matched peers cf.…”

Learning R Programming Language With Psi Chi

“…Unsurprisingly, many researchers have found that emerging adults with disabilities feel as if they generally belong less than their peers (Bramston, Bruggerman, & Pretty, 2002;Hall, 2004). This lesser sense of belonging in those with a disability may be related to the increased levels of social rejection that they experience (Chen & Shu, 2012;Salmon, 2013).…”