Social identity in adults with learning disabilities: a brief report

Abstract

Social identity is an important part of our self-concept and our perception of social identity comes from our associations with specific in-groups over other out-groups. Adults with learning disabilities are assumed to associate with the learning disability minority group, and previous studies have focused on the stigma attached to this label. Many of these studies though have ignored this label’s role on establishing access to some services and provisions and have also only used qualitative data. In this study we set out to gather quantitative data about the level of in-group identification people with learning disabilities have with this group, using an established in-group identification scale, adapted for use by people with learning disabilities. We hypothesised that the level of in-group identification would be affected by perceived threat to the in-group, and this was supported by our results in this small scale study. The relationship with perceived threat may show that people appreciate the negative associations with the label, and participants with low in-group identification may well be trying to dis-identify with the learning disability group.