Identity constructions and transition to adulthood for young people with mild intellectual disabilities

Abstract

This article explores the self-constructions of young adults with mild intellectual disabilities in talk about their everyday living and how parents and professionals construct young adults with disabilities in talk about their involvement in transition processes. The analysis is related to an interpretive tradition and conducted based on individual interviews with four young adults with mild intellectual disability, five parents of young adults with mild intellectual disabilities and five professionals in the adult service system. The findings show that the young adults define themselves as actors in their own lives, while the parents recognize young adults with mild intellectual disabilities as both actors with resources and actors in need of assistance. Professionals in the adult service system, however, appear to rely on an identity perspective that might hamper young adults' agency positioning and opportunities to define themselves and influence their future lives.

Transitioning to adulthood with a mild intellectual disability—Young people's experiences, expectations and aspirations

“…Aside from themes specific to having an intellectual disability, the participants' perspectives were generally very similar to those one might expect to record amongst typically developing young adults (Furstenberg, Kennedy, McLoyd, Rumbaut, & Settersten, ; Nelson & Luster, ). As only one other paper could be found that directly explored this population's attitudes towards growing up and adulthood (Midjo & Aune, ), there is very little extant literature with which to compare our findings. In some ways, for example, this similarity was unexpected, as previous research has suggested that young adults with mild intellectual disabilities may have different concerns to their typically developing peers at this stage in life (Forte, Jahoda, & Dagnan, ).…”

“…Yet, as suggested by Midjo and Aune (), today's young adults with intellectual disabilities have been brought up in time that places great emphasis on equal rights and opportunities. Consequently, it may not be surprising that many young people with disabilities have grown to expect that they will lead “ordinary” lives in the long run.…”

“…From these, valuable insights have been gained regarding some of the specific difficulties that young people with disabilities and their parents face during adolescence and young adulthood. However, only one study could be found that directly sought to explore how young adults with mild intellectual disabilities perceive and experience the broader topics of “growing up” and adult identity (Midjo & Aune, ). This is despite the fact that post‐school outcomes may be affected by an individual's expectations of, and attitudes towards, becoming an adult.…”

Tensions between risk, coping and support: young people with intellectual disability in Sweden and Internet-related support

“…The analysis was inspired by the tradition of meaning interpretation, which goes beyond reformulation of subjects' experiences and meanings through deeper and critical interpretations of the text (Brinkmann and Kvale 2015;Midjo and Aune 2018). Hence, the results are thematically presented together with emic (Hammersley and Atkinson 2007) interpretations.…”

Comparing everyday autonomy and adult identity in young people with and without intellectual disabilities

“…Only two studies could be found that focussed on young people with intellectual disabilities’ perspectives on their own transition experiences. First, Midjo and Aune (2016) interviewed four Norwegian young adults with mild intellectual disabilities in an attempt to investigate their self‐constructions when conversing about their daily lives. The authors found that undertaking housework was symbolic of the female participants’ independence and self‐ascribed adult identity.…”